Surely it's obvious a 16-bit device can record more f-stops of subject information than an 8-bit device?
not to me. Whether its 8 bit, 4 bit, or 50 bit, the brightest object the chip can respond to is set to the highest number available; the darkest to 0. The only difference is the number of definable steps in between. A 4 bit device might capture 16 stops worth of dynamic range. You wouldn't like it much because the full range from one stop to the next would be represented by only one number in the scale. There'd be no gradation between stops but the device could still record data across that wide of a range. I'm not sure how many more different ways I can say this.
Take your monitor and change if from 24 bit to 8 bit.. or even less if you can. Images look posterized now but the lightest points are just as light. The darkest points didn't become lighter. The same range is there. The same thing happens when fewer bits are used to interpret capture data.
Back in the days when high end 8 bit devices were more common it was not that unusual at all to find very good 8 bit devices that could easily outperform (dynamic range) lesser devices with higher bit depth a/d convertors. Bit depth is not the limiting factor.
Bob Smith
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