So you want to know how many songs can hold on a 16GB memory card? That is a pretty good question, especially if you are looking to buy a memory card for your camera or cell phone and you want to at least have an idea of how many pictures can be stored on it.
Before I get into breaking down the storage capacity, you should know that the 16GB memory card can end up holding a lot more or less, it is really dependent on many different factors from megapixel size, camera, if you have video recorded, other data and more.
How Many Photos Can Fit on 16GB?
To get an idea of how many images can hold per card, we use the following estimates below:
1 MP = 1,000,000 pixels
1MB = 1,000,000 bytes, 1GB = 1,000MB
JPEG 100% Quality = Visually lossless JPEG compression with 1:10 ratio of RAW image
Photos – Compressed (JPEG 100% quality) Images per card. (info by Sandisk)
| Megapixels | File size (MB) | 16GB |
| 4MP | 1.2 | 11444 |
| 5MP | 1.5 | 9155 |
| 6MP | 1.8 | 7629 |
| 7MP | 2.1 | 6539 |
| 8MP | 2.4 | 5722 |
| 10MP | 3.0 | 4577 |
| 12MP | 3.6 | 3814 |
| 14MP | 4.2 | 3269 |
| 16MP | 4.8 | 2861 |
| 22MP | 6.6 | 2080 |
If you have a DSLR and shoot in RAW format, then the table below should be able to give you an idea of how many images you can fit on the 16GB memory card.
Photos – Uncompressed RAW (24 bits per pixel) Images per card
| Megapixels | File size (MB) | 16GB |
| 4MP | 12.0 | 1144 |
| 5MP | 15.0 | 915 |
| 6MP | 18.0 | 762 |
| 7MP | 21.0 | 653 |
| 8MP | 24.0 | 572 |
| 10MP | 30.0 | 457 |
| 12MP | 36.0 | 381 |
| 14MP | 42.0 | 326 |
| 16MP | 48.0 | 286 |
| 22MP | 66.0 | 208 |
Even though everything is pretty much estimated, this should give you some insight into how much photos 16GB can hold. So if you are looking to get a memory card for your cell phone or camera, you should have a basic guideline as to how many pics you can take before your card starts filling up.