No, the 16bit RGB file stores 65 536 shades of grey. You must think of R G B channels as a separate grey channel. An 8 bit file stores only 256 levels of grey. 256 levels in most cases is ok, like in your pic example, but when you have very smooth gradations (zoom in close on a portion of a pic too see), you will get banding with an 8 bit image. You are confusing "bit depth". You can either talk about it as bits/channel or total bits. In your 24bit example, you are actually talking about an 8bit/channel image, which would make 16 and some millions of colors.

Message edited on: 06/30/2005 11:21