How much memory do I need for my digital camera?

How much memory do I need for my digital camera?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: How does my digital camera turn my picture into a file?; How do various types of memory cards differ?; How much memory do I need for my digital camera? and more...

How much memory do you need for your digital camera? Well, it depends on how many pictures you want to take. Remember, we talked about on your digital camera, you want to shoot generally in the fine jpeg mode. Fine jpeg mode means the camera stores the pictures on the memory card at roughly half the mega pixels on the camera. So, if I have an eight mega pixel camera shooting in fine jpeg mode, my pictures are about four megabytes on the camera. So, how big of a memory card or how much memory do I need? How many pictures do you want to take? If I have a one gigabyte card, which is a thousand megabytes, with an eight mega pixel camera shooting in fine jpeg mode, my pictures are four megabytes a piece, that means I get about two hundred and fifty, rough numbers, pictures on a one gigabyte card. So, if I don't need two fifty, I could go down to a five twelve megabyte or half gigabyte card and get one hundred to one hundred and twenty five pictures. If I need more pictures, I could go to a two gigabyte card and get five hundred pictures. How many pictures do you want to take before you have to change the memory card?