12 bit vs 16 bit

[<Tone Deaf>]

can someone explain why one is better to use than the other (for audio) and give an example why i would use it? this has always confused me.

just trying to learn!

[riley]

Hi Tone Deaf,
I have just started back into news and found that if I shoot with my own DVCAM at 12 bit the AVID editor will not read it- it translates it as 44K or 16 bit. This means your video recording is using all of the tape space to make a higher quality audio recording, if you us the 12 bit it leaves room for you to edit another audio track onto that tape. Thats the way I understand it- I may be wrong.