Digital BW, The Print

Hi all-

I thought Austin was going to address this in the last 16/8 thread, 
but it died <g>.

Do you think there is any advantage gained from converting an 8 bit 
image (usually a .jpg from a Nikon 5000) to 16 bit before doing any 
adjustments in PS?.

I've been do it just to make the Silver Oxide filter easier to use, 
but I feel like it might just be giving me smoother prints. Doesn't 
make sense, but it seems that way.

Any idea what would the proper test be? Other than "how it looks?"

Tom O'Connell