It depends on the photos themselves, but as a rough guide an Ultimate Backup holds about 250 photos per gigabyte of storage. That works out at about 4,000 photos on a 16 GB drive, about 8,000 on a 32 GB drive, and about 16,000 on a 64 GB drive. Whatever the size of your photo collection, we have an option that will meet your needs.
We've got options.
Ultimate Backup MAX is available in sizes ranging from 32GB to 512GB.
Ultimate Backup SSD is available in 500GB and 1TB.
What size is right for me?
Because of the varying size of the pictures your camera creates, it can be difficult to say exactly how many pictures your Ultimate Backup will hold. Since most photos today are taken with a smartphone, we have put together this guide to help you work out which size will suit you best.
We estimate that a typical "average" photo taken with a modern phone camera is about 4 MB. On that basis, you can store about 250 pictures per 1 GB of storage. So a 16 GB drive holds about 4,000 pictures, a 32 GB drive about 8,000, and a 64 GB drive about 16,000. The same scale carries on upwards, so you can work out roughly what any size will hold.
These figures are estimates rather than guarantees. The final count will depend on your phone type, your camera specifications, the settings you use to take your images, and whether you are backing up videos as well. If you plan on backing up your computer too, and your pictures are taken with a high-end camera (20+ megapixel, DSLR, or "bridge" camera), you will probably want to move up to the next largest size.
Did you know?
The file size of your photos is partly determined by what is in the photo. A photo with lots of colors, shapes, and detail will create a larger file than a simple photo with fewer colors, even at the same resolution and quality. Think about a picture of a clock on a blank wall (little detail, small file size) compared with a picture of a crowd at a ball game (lots of detail, larger file size).
What about videos?
The estimate above covers still photos only. Video takes up far more room. The two phone families most people own, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, both record at 1080p HD at 30 frames per second unless you change the setting, and at that setting a minute of video comes to roughly 65 MB on an iPhone and roughly 130 MB on an Android phone. Averaging the two gives a working figure of about 10 minutes of video per gigabyte.
On that basis a 16 GB drive holds around two and a half hours of video, a 32 GB drive around five hours, and a 64 GB drive around ten hours. We have rounded those totals down, and they assume video alone. If you are backing up photos as well, the two share the same space, so plan on less of each.
Like the photo figures, this is an estimate based on the most common phones at their default settings rather than a guarantee, and where published figures disagree we have taken the larger, more cautious end. Higher settings cut it sharply. Recording at 60 frames per second instead of 30 costs you about a third, bringing you to roughly six and a half minutes per gigabyte. Recording in 4K makes the files close to three times larger, which brings you to nearer three minutes per gigabyte. Combining the two, 4K at 60 frames per second, uses more again. If video makes up a large part of what you want to keep, choose a larger drive than the photo estimate alone suggests.
If you are not sure which size suits you, contact us and we will be happy to help.