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How Many Pictures Can You Fit on a Flash Card

It's only natural - we buy regular film based on the number of exposures it will hold, so we expect to purchase "digital film" the same way. Unfortunately, it's difficult to predict exactly how many photos you will be able to fit on a flash card.

That's because the file size for one photo depends on a number of different factors:

  • Resolution The higher the resolution, the bigger the file will be.
  • Compression Your camera may give the option of choosing a compression format (e.g. JPEG or TIFF) or taking uncompressed photos. Uncompressed files are the largest, and compression formats vary in size.
  • Colors RGB photos (format for viewing on a monitor) are three times as big as black and white photos, and CMYK photos (format for printing) are four times as big as black and white.
  • Your camera model and the shooting conditions Each camera gives slightly different results, and you may even get a different number of photos per card depending on the subject you are shooting and the current light conditions.

Taking those factors into consideration, the chart below can give you some general guidelines for how many pictures average users can fit on various sizes of flash cards.

Use: E-mail or the Web Resolution: 640 x 480 (VGA)
  Min. Max. Avg.
4MB 4 91 48
8MB 9 182 96
16MB 18 364 191
32MB 36 728 382
48MB 54 1092 573
64MB 72 1456 764
80MB 91 1820 956
128MB 145 2912 1529
160MB 182 3640 1911
256MB 290 5824 3058
512MB 580 11648 6116

Use: Up to 3" x 5" photo-quality prints Resolution: 1024 x 768
  Min. Max. Avg.
4MB 1 35 18
8MB 3 71 37
16MB 7 142 75
32MB 14 284 149
48MB 21 426 224
64MB 28 568 298
80MB 35 711 373
128MB 56 1137 597
160MB 71 1422 747
256MB 112 2274 1194
512MB 224 4548 2388

Use: Up to 5" x 7" photo-quality prints Resolution: 1280 x 960 (1 megapixel)
  Min. Max. Avg.
4MB 1 22 12
8MB 2 45 24
16MB 4 91 48
32MB 9 182 96
48MB 13 273 143
64MB 18 364 191
80MB 22 455 239
128MB 36 728 382
160MB 45 910 478
256MB 72 1456 764
512MB 144 2912 1528

Use: Up to 8" x 10" photo-quality prints Resolution: 1600 x 1200 (2 megapixels)
  Min. Max. Avg.
4MB 0 14 7
8MB 1 29 15
16MB 2 58 30
32MB 5 116 61
48MB 8 174 91
64MB 11 233 122
80MB 14 291 153
128MB 23 466 245
160MB 29 582 306
256MB 46 932 490
512MB 92 1864 980

Use: Up to 11" x 14" photo-quality prints Resolution: 2048 x 1680 (3 megapixels)
  Min. Max. Avg.
4MB 0 8 4
8MB 0 16 8
16MB 1 32 17
32MB 3 65 34
48MB 4 97 51
64MB 6 130 68
80MB 8 162 85
128MB 13 260 137
160MB 16 325 171
256MB 26 520 274
512MB 52 1040 548


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