If you’re shooting with a 20-megapixel camera, you can fit about 1,333 JPEG pictures on an 8GB memory card. That said, this number can change heavily if you have a camera with a different resolution or if you shoot in RAW format.
I’m Caleb, and I have more than four years of experience as a sports photographer. I’ve shot several sports over the years at multiple levels, including football, basketball, and soccer.
In this article, I’ll explain how many pictures you can fit on an 8GB memory card and what can cause that number to go higher or lower. If you’re unsure if you have enough storage with one of these memory cards, read ahead for an easy explanation.
Contents
How Many Pictures Can 8GB Hold?
An 8GB memory card can hold around 1,333 JPEG format pictures if they’re shot at a resolution of 20 megapixels. However, this is far from a definitive answer to the question. Resolution can vary greatly, and it’s dependent on your camera.
For example, even many entry-level and intermediate cameras today, like the Canon Rebel series, offer resolutions higher than the listed example of 20 megapixels.
On the other hand, you can still get great results with lower-resolution cameras. To give another example, the Sony a7S II is a full-frame camera that is very capable in content creation but only has a 12-megapixel resolution. This is still enough for “4K” looking photos.
A higher resolution means a larger file size. This estimate uses a moderate resolution, but if you have a higher or lower one, you should plan accordingly.
How Many RAW Pictures Can 8GB Hold?
It’s not only the resolution that impacts file size but also the format. The RAW format offers several advantages but also has the drawback of a much larger file size.
If you’re shooting with the same 20-megapixel camera but in RAW format instead of JPEG, you’ll only be able to fit 133 pictures on the memory card.
Obviously, whether this is enough storage or not depends on your kind of photography. If you’re only taking a dozen or so pictures at a time, it might not be a problem at all.
But for some types of photography, such as action photography, you’ll need to bring a larger memory card to avoid running out of space.
FAQs
Here are some other questions about memory cards and storage.
How Many Pictures Can 8GB Hold on a Trail Camera?
A trail camera isn’t fundamentally different from a basic one. The number of pictures it can store in its memory will depend on the same factors, mainly the resolution, since this will decide the file size per image.
How Many Videos Can 8GB Hold?
It’s impossible to estimate how many videos 8GB of storage can hold. That’s because videos vary in size a lot more than pictures. Instead of file size only being decided by format and resolution, you also have to account for video length.
Conclusion
In short, you can store approximately 1,333 JPEG format pictures or 133 RAW format pictures on an 8GB storage device. However, these numbers assume you’re shooting on a 20-megapixel camera and will go up or down if you have a different resolution.
Which memory card brand do you use? Let us know in the comments.
