Thanks for the comments
buzzardkid - I stopped scanning my negs a while ago as it took too long. I now have my pro lab do it (Rapid Eye, Old St). They use a professional scan, but scan at low resolution - it's a 'DKS 1500'. They tell me they try not to sharpen or have images too sharp in fact - I might often tweak a bit in PP.
Nut I think the sharpness of these photos has more to do with the excellence of the lens on this occasion - just compare it to the blog entry before, with scanned negs by the same machine, but with a lomo type camera.
Nick