diff --git a/src/main/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImage.java b/src/main/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImage.java
index 587c7c7..4275122 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImage.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImage.java
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ protected static int getBufferedImageType(final ImageReader reader) throws IOExc
 
     private static BufferedImage convertIfNeeded(BufferedImage tile) {
         ColorModel colorModel = tile.getColorModel();
-        boolean convertToGray = isFakeGrayScale(colorModel);
+        boolean convertToGray = isFakeGrayScale(colorModel) || colorModel.getNumColorComponents() == 1;
         int pixelSize = colorModel.getPixelSize();
         int targetType = tile.getType();
         if (convertToGray) {
@@ -411,6 +411,10 @@ public static int getImageType(final ImageReader imageReader) throws IOException
     private static int getImageType(ColorModel colorModel) {
         int pixelSize = colorModel.getPixelSize();
         if (pixelSize > 8) {
+            if (colorModel.getNumColorComponents() == 1) {
+                LOGGER.debug("Quite sure we should use TYPE_BYTE_GRAY for a pixel size of {}", pixelSize);
+                return BufferedImage.TYPE_BYTE_GRAY;
+            }
             LOGGER.debug("Quite sure we should use TYPE_INT_RGB for a pixel size of {}", pixelSize);
             return BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB;
         } else if (pixelSize == 8) {
@@ -720,7 +724,7 @@ private void writeImageIoTile(final ZipOutputStream zout, final BufferedImage ti
         }
         try (ImageOutputStream imageOutputStream = ImageIO.createImageOutputStream(zout)) {
             imgWriter.setOutput(imageOutputStream);
-            //tile = addWatermark(scaleBufferedImage(tile));        
+            //tile = addWatermark(scaleBufferedImage(tile));
             final IIOImage iioImage = new IIOImage(tile, null, null);
             imgWriter.write(null, iioImage, imageWriteParam);
         } finally {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImageTest.java b/src/test/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImageTest.java
index b80a8e1..1986a5c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImageTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/mycore/imagetiler/MCRImageTest.java
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ public void setUp() {
         pics.put("1 pixel mega tile rest", "src/test/resources/BE_0681_0397.jpg");
         pics.put("extra small", "src/test/resources/5x5.jpg");
         pics.put("tiff 48 bit", "src/test/resources/tiff48.tif");
+        pics.put("tiff 16 bit", "src/test/resources/tiff16.tif");
 
         tileDir = Paths.get("target/tileDir");
         System.setProperty("java.awt.headless", "true");
diff --git a/src/test/resources/tiff16.tif b/src/test/resources/tiff16.tif
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f45cb5d
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/test/resources/tiff16.tif differ