A true 16-bit-per-channel TIFF preserves vastly more discrete tonal and colour values than an 8-bit TIFF or JPEG file.

• A standard JPEG or an 8-Bit TIFF is 8-bit per channel → 256 levels per channel.
  
• A 16-bit TIFF is 16-bit per channel → 65,536 levels per channel.

That extra precision matters when you do real colour work: setting neutrals, refining skin tones, balancing highlights vs shadows, or making subtle HSL/curve adjustments.

In an 8-bit workflow the “steps” between colour/tonal values are much larger, so heavier edits can introduce banding, posterisation, or colour shifts. In 16-bit, the same edits remain smooth because you’re manipulating a set of colour and density values that contain 256 x more information.

For black & white, the key benefit of 16-bit is tonal separation—especially in the low end. When you lift shadows, shape midtones with curves, dodge/burn, or push local contrast, 8-bit files can break apart: blocked shadows, harsh transitions, banding, and “muddy” tonal areas.

A 16-bit TIFF won’t invent detail that isn’t on the negative, but it preserves far more of the scanner’s captured tonal information, so deep tones can be opened up more cleanly—often closer to the feel of working a real negative in the darkroom.

A 16-bit TIFF is best thought of as an archival master. It’s the version you keep if you want maximum flexibility for future printing, re-grading, or different looks as your taste/software changes. JPEG is an excellent delivery format for most people, but it’s already tone-mapped and compressed, and it gives you less margin for major reinterpretation later. Keeping a 16-bit master is the digital equivalent of keeping the negative: it’s the file you return to when you want the most faithful and flexible starting point.

Many labs offer “TIFF” simply as an 8-bit, uncompressed alternative to JPEG. That can be useful (it avoids JPEG compression artefacts), but it’s not the same as a true high-bit workflow—editing headroom is still limited by 8-bit precision.

With the Noritsu HS-1800 workflow, the advantage is larger: we can output true 16-bit TIFF files, retaining far more tonal and colour precision. In other words, on many systems TIFF mainly reduces compression artefacts; on a true 16-bit Noritsu workflow the TIFF option is about substantially greater tonal/colour latitude for serious grading and printing.

Film photography is defined by colour rendition and tonal behaviour—how a stock handles highlights, how shadows roll off, how midtones separate, how skin looks, how colour layers interact under different light.

Those qualities aren’t just “resolution”; they’re about how tones are mapped and how colour is held together. A true 16-bit workflow preserves that nuance so you can refine highlight/midtone/shadow relationships and colour balance without the file collapsing. If you care about the exact character of a film stock, 16-bit TIFF is the format that best preserves the negative’s subtlety for interpretation, grading, and printmaking.