Bit
From Nikonians Wiki
A bit is the smallest unit of computer information, and is a 1 or a 0. Bits are combined into bytes of 8 bits each.
8 bits represents all the values from 0 to 255.
"8 bits" in photography refers to 8 bits of information per channel. Therefore, an 8 bit RGB image will have three channels of information, each with 256 possible values. Therefore, each pixel contains three bytes of information.
In computers and discussions of monitors and graphics cards, the number of bits refers to the total number of bits displayed. Therefore, 24 bits of computer monitor is the same as 8 bits of photographic information.
"16 bits" in photography refers to 16 bits per channel, for a total of 48 bits or 6 bytes per pixel.
Nikon digital cameras capture either 8 bits (JPEG) or either 12 or 14 bits in Raw. 8 bits contains fewer values than the human eye sees, while 14 bits approaches the number of values the eye can see. However, no monitor or printer can actually display 14 bits of discernible values.
Since computers deal in bytes, the 12 or 14 bits from a Nikon Raw file are converted to either 8 bits or 16 bits when the Raw file is developed.
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