Digital BW, The Print

>> So while converting doesn't add info it does less damage
>> to the file when applying adjustments? 

True. 

>ALL image editing loses data...

Perhaps in some technical sense, but if one starts with an 8 bit file and
converts it to 16 bit, there is so much room to move data around within that
space that no significant amount of information should be lost with moderate
adjustments to, for example a curve.  The action should simply re-distribute
the steps up or down the scale.

With 8 bit per channel RGB originals (like Jpegs), I convert to 16
bit/channel Tiff before converting to 16 bit grayscale.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com