Processing Noise in 16 Bit Images

I was trying out the Noise Ninja Software for the 1st time and I noticed that its able to process from the 16 bit raw image. I normally use the Topaz Bundle which can only edit in 8 bit raw. Does noise processing in 16 bit image produce better pictures ?

I have not done any serious study between the Noise Ninja and Topaz DeNoise but noticed that Noise Ninja does remove some details.

Do you have old version of DeNoise? Mine (5.10) works fine with 16 bit raw NEF files.
Click the link (denoise51) below the image to see bigger size in Flickr showing it's really 16 bit NEF.




denoise51 by foppa2009, on Flickr

JayD said:

... Does noise processing in 16 bit image produce better pictures?

Click to expand...

Interesting question... I do all my RAW processing in 16-bit mode and I while I really *want* to say the mere presence of that much additional data (8-bit vs 12 or 14-bit) would *have* to have some kind on impact how effective noise reduction would be... I can't. I think we'd need to do some testing before we could arrive at a solid conclusion. I'd be happy to do some of it, too, if I wasn't buried in three or four projects that are pulling on me for processing time.

It really is an interesting question, though... Or at least I think so.

My version of Denoise is 5.0.1 and works only with 8bit.