How Many Pictures Will a 16MB SD Card Hold?

Depending on the megapixels of a digital image, a single picture could be too large to store on your 16MB SD card. Although a 16MB SD card does not provide the ideal storage capacity for a large amount of pictures, the amount that can be stored will vary depending on your camera and its settings.

A 16MB SD card will only be able to hold approximately 13 4MP JPEG images. The detail and size of pictures taken with digital cameras is dependent on the megapixels of the image. Each MP represents one million pixels, with a pixel being the smallest component that makes up a digital image. Check with your camera's manufacturer or the device's documentation for the MP. With SD cards available in much larger versions, a 16GB card, for example, can hold approximately 11,444 4MP JPEG images. Approximately two 16MP JPEG photos can be stored on a 16MB SD card.

Megabytes and gigabytes are common terms used to classify the size of an SD card, with a MB representing one million bytes of information, and a GB representing 1,000MB. SD cards are distributed in a wide variety of storage capacities. They're used with computers, digital cameras, smartphones and other types of electronic devices that each have different memory demands. Determine the purpose of your SD card, whether it's to share limited files with friends or to store an entire collection of media files, before settling on a specific size. A 32GB SD card or larger should offer adequate storage space for an entire photo collection, spanning many different events, while a 2GB SD card offers enough for moderate sharing with friends. As technology advances, the size of SD cards and the files they store continue to increase.

The size of an image taken by your digital camera is determined by the device's settings. Your camera may be able to take pictures in multiple formats, allowing you to adjust the format to fit your needs. Uncompressed or RAW image files are images in the highest-quality format for the camera. This type of format is typically unnecessary for regular use and creates the largest possible files your digital camera can make. Your digital camera may also allow you to adjust the amount of MP you want pictures to be.

A 16MB SD card will not allow you to store a large amount of digital images, regardless of the camera's settings. Optimize the amount of memory available to you by changing the digital camera's settings, if applicable, to the smallest possible photo size with the highest level of compression. This will reduce the quality of the image, but allow you to store the most possible pictures. Compressed images are commonly stored in the JPEG file format. Purchase an SD card with more storage capacity if the 16MB card doesn't fit your digital imaging needs.