Digital BW, The Print

Usually shoots digital raw to preserve 16 bits per channel and avoid
deterioration when processing the images. However, it occurs to me
that if one is shooting color with 8 bits/channel, there are already
24 bits of information. If the image is then converted to 16 bit
grayscale mode, all bits contain information and there should be no
empty bins in the histogram due to lack of intensity resolution. The
quality of the 16 bit image should be adequate to tolerate processing. 

Have anyone tested this? Any ideas?

Manuel Toledo