How many photos can a 256-MB memory card hold?

Answer 1

The number of photos that can be held depends entirely upon what quality you wish to shoot the pictures at. A 5 megapixel camera, at maximum resolution, probably won't hold many photos. (25-30) As the resolution increases, the number of photos that can be held decreases exponentially. At a lower quality (say 640 by 480) you can hold between 1000 and 3000 photos on a 256 mb camera, depending upon the compression.

Answer 2

The size of picture depends on many factors like in which format file is stored and what type of compression option is selected in the camera. e.g. compression can be for normal, fine or superfine image storage. The image size varies a lot based on the content and color in the image when stored in a compressed format like .jpg. If the average image size at 5MP resolution is around 3MB and formatted capacity of 512MB card is around 480MB, you should be able to store around 180 images.

To be on safer side, more than 150 5MP .jpg images on 512MB card is a good number to assume for most of the conditions.

- Neeraj Sharma

Answer 3

The number of photos that can be held depends entirely upon what quality you wish to shoot the pictures at. A 5 megapixel camera, at maximum resolution, probably won't hold many photos. (25-30) As the resolution increases, the number of photos that can be held decreases exponentially. At a lower quality (say 640 by 480) you can hold between 1000 and 3000 photos on a 256 mb camera, depending upon the compression.

Answer 4

The capacity of a card indicates the maximum amount of data that can be stored (less some space for the card's own use).

Megapixel (MP) count refers to the maximum resolution of the camera's sensor -- its ability to record detail. The number of images that can be recorded on a card of a given size is only indirectly related to the capacity of the card, which is measured in Kilobytes (KB) or Megabytes (MB), not MP. That will vary according to the image itself, and to the camera's settings.

For example: My Pentax K10D, with a 10.1 MP sensor and using a 4 GB card, will record approximately 821 images at the highest resolution (10 MP) and a "Fine" resolution setting. The same camera, with the same sensor and same card, will record 10,000-plus images at the lowest resolution (2 MP) and the "Low" resolution setting. Practically all cameras have this ability to change the resolution settings, and thus the sizes of the image files that are stored on the card.

So, you can see that it is only possible to answer your question in very general terms: The higher the capacity of the card, the more images you can store at whatever camera settings. And, as you can see above, even at the highest settings with a high MP count, you can take a lot of pictures!

One thing to think about: storage cards can and do fail. It is better to have two 1 GB cards than one 2 GB card, unless you plan to shoot a whole lot of video. That way if one fails, you can keep shooting and worry about retrieving the images off the other card later.

Answer 5

The capacity of a card indicates the maximum amount of data that can be stored (less some space for the card's own use).

Megapixel (MP) count refers to the maximum resolution of the camera's sensor -- its ability to record detail. The number of images that can be recorded on a card of a given size is only indirectly related to the capacity of the card, which is measured in Kilobytes (KB) or Megabytes (MB), not MP. That will vary according to the image itself, and to the camera's settings.

For example: My Pentax K10D, with a 10.1 MP sensor and using a 4 GB card, will record approximately 821 images at the highest resolution (10 MP) and a "Fine" resolution setting. The same camera, with the same sensor and same card, will record 10,000-plus images at the lowest resolution (2 MP) and the "Low" resolution setting. Practically all cameras have this ability to change the resolution settings, and thus the sizes of the image files that are stored on the card.

So, you can see that it is only possible to answer your question in very general terms: The higher the capacity of the card, the more images you can store at whatever camera settings. And, as you can see above, even at the highest settings with a high MP count, you can take a lot of pictures!

One thing to think about: storage cards can and do fail. It is better to have two 1 GB cards than one 2 GB card, unless you plan to shoot a whole lot of video. That way if one fails, you can keep shooting and worry about retrieving the images off the other card later.

Answer 6

My Fujifilm Finepix digi-cam gives me 640 shots at 12 Mega-pixels on a 2MB card. After doing some quick conversions, I reckon you should expect around 200 shots from a 5 Mega-pixel cam with a card that size.

Answer 7

The answer is depending a bit on the type of picture jpg vs raw. Assuming jpg a 4MP Camera typically generates jpeg pictures with a size of 1.5MB. So this would amount to roughly 170 picures

Answer 8

Roughly 100