Although I agree for the most part with Nameless's comments...we should be careful with respect to what we "think" we are getting regarding image quality.

To my knowledge there are NO consumer DSLR's that have a 16 bit D/A converter....the best currently available are the 14 bit files produced from the newest Canon's (40D and 1Ds Mark III ) and Nikon's ( D300 and D3).

So, converting your 12 or 14 bit image data into a 16 bit TIFF file will not in reality give you 16 bit information.

In youth, we learn....with age, we understand.