Digital BW, The Print

I haven't done much comparison but was sitting here curious.

For those of you shooting digital cameras are you importing at the '16' bit option and converting down to 8?
Question comes to mind because when I scan a neg, I tend to do just that.  Scan 16bit, save, copy convert to 8bit, save.
Work on the 8bit and then if desired apply most of the 8bit workings to the 16bit file, convert that file to 8 if necessary to complete applications.

This works for me at times if my goal is to have a 'smooth' histogram.  There are times, admittedly, I think the histogram certainly should be more a guide than goal.  However if there's difficulty with the print, then I re-examine the histogram.

FWIW, my dig. camera is a CanonG3, files brought into PS7 via Adobe RAW Converter.  I like this arrangement quite a bit, as it is like 'developing' the image.  The G3 has a +2 bit advantage over the G3, which put the question in my head.

Cleavis

PS. My thanks to those who change the header/subject line to reflect the content...I actually read those ;-) and skip the ones I've tired of.

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