Planning Your Digital Archive
Whether you are buying a new SD card for your camera or choosing a cloud storage plan, knowing how much "space" you actually have is critical. Our Pro Data Storage Calculator provides realistic estimates for the most common digital media formats.
Why 128GB is Never 128GB
When you buy a 128GB drive, your computer often reports it as having only 119GB of usable space. This is due to two factors:
- Binary vs. Decimal: Hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes (Decimal). Computers define 1GB as 1,073,741,824 bytes (Binary). This leads to a roughly 7% discrepancy.
- File System Overhead: The drive needs some space for the "Map" (File Allocation Table) that tells the computer where your files are stored.
Estimating Photo Storage
- JPEGs: A standard 12MP phone photo is roughly 3-5MB.
- Pro RAW: Professional cameras save uncompressed RAW files, which can be 20-50MB each.
- HEIC: The modern format used by iPhones is much more efficient, often taking half the space of a JPEG for the same quality.
Estimating Video Storage
Video storage is determined by the Bitrate (the amount of data processed per second).
- 1080p (HD): Uses roughly 150-200MB per minute of footage.
- 4K (Ultra HD): Uses 400-800MB per minute, depending on the frame rate and codec (H.264 vs H.265).