Camera Memory Card Capacity Calculator | How Many Photos and Minutes of Video Fit
Enter your card capacity, the file size of a single shot and a video bitrate to see how many photos you can store and how long you can record. Find out whether a card is big enough before you head out.
💡 About this tool
"Do I need a spare card for this trip?" and "Will 64GB last a full shooting day?" are questions every photographer asks at the worst possible moment. The shots-remaining counter on your camera is only a rough guess based on the quality you have set right now, and it collapses the moment you switch to RAW or start rolling 4K.
This calculator separates the two questions. Pick a card size (16GB to 1TB), a photo format (JPEG, RAW or RAW+JPEG), a per-shot file size, a video resolution (4K, 1080p or 720p) and a bitrate, and it returns the photo count and the video recording time independently. For RAW+JPEG it adds the two file sizes together as one capture, which mirrors how dual-format shooting actually fills a card. Changing the resolution drops in a typical bitrate for that quality, so you have a sensible starting point to adjust from.
🧐 Frequently asked questions
Why doesn't the number match the counter on my camera? Your camera estimates from the average file size of the shots you have already taken at the current quality. Busy, detailed scenes produce larger JPEGs, so an average-based figure will drift from the live counter. Treat this as a pre-shoot planning estimate, not a frame-exact prediction.
What RAW file size should I enter? Per-shot size depends mostly on sensor resolution and the compression mode. For a typical 20-24 megapixel mirrorless body, uncompressed RAW often lands around 20-30 MB. Shoot a few frames on your own camera, check the actual size, and plug that number in for the best accuracy.
Why can't I use the full 64GB on a 64GB card? Manufacturers label cards in decimal (1GB = 1 billion bytes), while devices count in binary (1GB = roughly 1.07 billion bytes), so usable space is a few percent below the printed figure. This tool calculates in decimal (1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes) to match the printed capacity, so the real usable space after formatting is slightly lower than the estimate.
Does the video time account for clip-length limits? No. The tool returns the theoretical total recording time from capacity and bitrate alone. Maximum continuous-recording duration and per-file size caps vary by camera, so check your body's spec sheet if you plan long takes.
📚 Why bitrate drives video time
Video recording time is simply capacity divided by data rate. Bitrate is quoted in megabits per second (Mbps), and since one byte is eight bits, 100 Mbps burns through about 12.5 megabytes every second. 4K commonly sits around 100 Mbps because all those extra pixels need more information to look clean, whereas 720p often holds up at roughly 25 Mbps and therefore records nearly four times longer on the same card. The "right" bitrate also depends on the subject: fast-moving sports demand a higher rate than a near-static lecture, so it pays to compare the numbers before committing a card to a shoot.