How many pictures will my memory card hold?

Expandable memory cards can range in size from as small as 16MB, all the way up to 4GB (4 Gigabytes or 4,000,000,000 bytes / 4 billion bytes), and range in price from $20-$200.   The chart below will give you a basic outline of how much memory a digital image will take up on different size cards, and with various output resolutions.  Please remember these are approximate numbers of images; results with your camera may vary.

                                Resolution / Mega Pixels
Capacity     3.0 MP      5.0 MP      8.0 MP   10 MP  12 MP
16MB         10                 9              5              2            2
32MB         25               17             10             5            4
128MB      150            120             80            55           32
256MB      300            240           160           110          71 
512MB      600            480           320           225         121
1GB         1200            950           600           400        260
2GB         2400          1900          1200           800        500
4GB*       4000          3000          2000          1500      1000

I find the useful range of sizes of memory cards to be between 128MB if you don’t record or plan to record a lot of digital video, and no smaller than a 1GB card if you do.  Overall I recommend using no smaller than a 128MB card. At this size you may find you will need to download (transfer) the pictures after one (1) day of typical sightseeing or normal family activity or trips, the larger 1GB to 2GB cards may offer enough room for storing pictures for an entire vacation or holiday.  *Note, the 4GB cards are harder to find (and currently moderately to very expensive), as they have only been in use since mid 2006 and are in relatively high demand. Also, they may not work in all model cameras, some models will only accept a maximum 2GB card.

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