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While many photographers choose the capacity of their digital camera memory cards based upon factors like intended usage and a desire to spread images across several cards to reduce the risk of data loss, there are lots of value conscious shoppers out there who make purchases based purely upon the price. You can learn more about choosing the ideal memory card capacity in our guide, What Size Memory Card Do I Need? When it comes to value though, is there a particular size (aka, capacity) memory card that actually represents a better deal?
The answer is typically yes and luckily there’s an easy way to calculate the price you’d spend per GB of memory card storage. To calculate the cost of memory per gigabyte, just divide the price of the memory card by the capacity of the memory card, such as $34 / 32GB = $1.06
With this hypothetical 32GB memory card that costs $34, we would have a cost per GB of $1.06.
If we compared this 32GB memory card against a 64GB memory card that cost $48.99, we would find that the cost per GB of the 64GB card was only $0.77 — a much better value, if you actually have a need for the extra capacity.
Since most manufacturers produce the same speed and class of memory card in an array of different sizes such as 16GB, 32GB, 64Gb, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB it’s pretty easy to quickly calculate the cost per GB of each to see which represent the best values. If it’s a difference of just a few cents per GB though, you’re probably better off making your purchasing decisions based upon your actual photography needs. Even if a 64GB or 128GB memory card represents a theoretical savings of money for the storage capacity, if you typically only shoot a few gigabytes of images in a day a smaller memory card might be the better choice for your camera.
As of late 2016, 64GB to 128GB memory cards tend to represent the best value, but it’s good to always check the sales, because sometimes you can find surprising discounts on memory cards of all sizes. When buying a memory card for your camera, you’ll also want to pay close attention to the card’s write speed, to make sure it’s fast enough for your intended usage — you can learn more in our article about Memory Card Read Speed vs Write Speed.