Dummy here...memory card question!

mcever4

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
538
I am not a technical person when it comes to memory cards! Can someone please tell me how many pictures a 1 GB and 128 MB memory card will hold? I am not taking the laptop to upload my pictures and need to know if I should go out and buy another card. We will be at WDW for 8 days and will also be utilizing PP photographers. Thanks so much for the help from this dummy!

Robin
 
Depends on the camera and camera settings. But with most newer cameras, the answer is really not that many photos. Most current memory cards are 8/16/32/64 gb.
 
If I remember the packaging should have a chart showing how many picture the card will hold. You will need to know your camera's megapixel to use the chart.
 
Not to make this complicated but there are many factors that play into how many images a card will hold. As several have said, the megapixel of your camera, are you shooting in JPEG or RAW or combination, what level or quality are you shooting (many cameras have a choice of shooting at different megapixel levels and the quality). Both of these affect the number of images a card will hold. Just an example, with your 128mb card with my camera at full megapixel, best quality, and Raw+JPEG (which is what I normally shoot), it would hold 4 or 5 images! Your 1gb card would hold about 24 images with the same settings. With my 16gb cards, with the same settings, I get 325 images and with just JPEG, 1074 images. My main cameras are 16mp DSLR cameras. Last weekend I covered three sporting events and shot around 2500 images. I have 10 SDHC cards (6-16gb, 4-8gb). Memory is one of the cheaper costs of photography (I recently purchased two Transcend 16gb cards for $26 with free shipping).
 

Like others have stated its really difficult to give an answer without knowing what camera you are using. Also do you plan on shooting video and is your video SD (standard definition) or HD (high definition), because video takes up a lot of room.

My suggestion, without more info, would be to purchase 2 or 3 16 GB transcend sd cards from somewhere like Amazon. Last I looked they were running between $12 - $14 per card. For that price you are better off having more cards than you need.
 
Besides the card, it may also depend on what size pictures you choose to take on your camera. What camera will you be using? That would help to determine how large of a picture you are going to try to take. Most cameras have several choices for picture resolution.


Here's a chart that will help you once you find out what size image you are taking. The size of your image is on the left and the size (and number of pictures your card will hold roughly is on the top):

For your 128 mb card, divide the 1 gb chart by 1/7 about.

JPG-Compression.jpg
 
Besides the card, it may also depend on what size pictures you choose to take on your camera. What camera will you be using? That would help to determine how large of a picture you are going to try to take. Most cameras have several choices for picture resolution.


Here's a chart that will help you once you find out what size image you are taking. The size of your image is on the left and the size (and number of pictures your card will hold roughly is on the top):

For your 128 mb card, divide the 1 gb chart by 1/7 about.

JPG-Compression.jpg

I'm not so sure this chart is accurate anymore. I just took an image using a 16mp camera (Pentax K5), set for JPEG (best quality) and the file size was 7.96mb not 4.8 as stated in the chart. With a clean 16gb card with the same settings the camera states 1052 images not 2861, as stated in the chart. I also have a 10mp camera (Pentax K10D) with a 8gb card and the max images with the same settings is 1612 not 2288 as the chart states. IMO, I would not rely on this chart.
 
It looks fairly close to my Sony PnS...but yes, I believe Sony DSLr and NEX have more detailed JPG that are larger....and it all goes back to "what camera" and "what settings"

For me, 1GB would of been too small to hold a trip's worth for my old 7mp camera, let alone my newer 18mp one (I came close to 32gb last year)

Now my first, 2mp camera, sure ;)
 


















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