"How many pictures fit on a memory card?"

I think the main reason customers ask that question is that they can't think of anything else to ask. Unfortunately the most accurate answer is the one my mentor, Howard Mink, used to pose in return: "How long is a piece of string?" It all depends…

When Phil Gresham, Jim Schwarzbach and Bill McCurry all claimed that I was the guy who had a neat sign to answer that question at PMA 2003, it was embarrassing to admit that I didn't have a sign. But it seemed like a really good idea, so I printed one.

What I did have, at that point, was a simple spread sheet that showed how many pictures each camera could fit onto each capacity of memory card, at whatever setting the user chose. Since the chart went from 16MB cards to 650MB CDs, with as many as 9 different combinations of image size and compression per camera, that chart was starting to get a little unwieldy.

To see a much larger image, click on the photo to the left.

Inspired by the confidence placed in me by the unholy 3, I designed this simplified chart and added some graphics. The photo comparing a CompactFlash card to a stack of 3 1/2 floppy disks is from my CD on Choosing and Using Digital Cameras.

If you'd like to make a similar sign, please remember that the "Certified Digital Photo Processing" logo is trademarked and copywrited by Independent Photo Imagers.