16Bit Images using PSE6

This question may have been asked before but I have failed to find a thread. Maybe some users of Elements6 may be able to help. When I open a DNG image and go to save as, the standard jpeg is not available for use with a 16bit image. I did query with adobe and they say that if I want to save a copy in JPEG then I must switch down to 8Bit. If I save in 16bit using psd or jpeg2000 or tiff then the files generated are far bigger than even the DNG. Are there real benefits in staying with 16bit. I wonder if PSE7 does anything different.:

PS7/CS3/4 etc all the same way, 8 bit is fine for most users, for photographers like me who shoot Weddings etc 16bit gives me that little bit more and if I think I will be returning to the file later then I save as PSD or Tiff. The only time the file go's to 8bit is for Jpegs on disc.




Edit: Typo.

I have used elements six for a fair while now and i usually open the raw file in 16bit then i create the TIFF file then close the item down and then reopen in 8 bit to create the jpegthere is probably a quicker way.You dont have to make anymore adjustments to the image because an XMP file was created when you edited the 16bit version.I dont know if its any different in PSE7 and am just getting to grips with cs3 at the moment.Thats the way ive been doing for a few months it may sound drawn out but it works for me.I also like to keep the best quality TIFF's at 16bit along side the best quality JPEG's hope this helps

Thanks for sharing what you guys do with 16bit. Have been doing somewhat same and for any images of major family events etc, I usually backup to seperate DVD immediately after loading from camera in case I want to revisit same at a later date. Difference is that when I got the advice from Adobe, I set the pse6 to 8bit and it has held this as a default. Must do some more testing.
Regards
EddieD

I'm using Lightroom 2.3 now, but when I used PSE5, I used to select the ZIP compression for TIFF files to get much smaller files at the cost of saving them taking a little longer.
As for 16bits, I found that lots of the more interesting filters could only handle 8bit files and that forced me to select my workflow very carefully as I wanted to do as much as possible on 16bits, before being forced to do the last polishing on 8bit. This is the main reason I'm now using Lightroom; this and the fact that in Lightroom you're permanently working off the PEF or DNG file without having to save intermediate versions after cropping, etc.