I just wanted to check to see how many photos other users are able to shoot on a 2 GB or 1 GB SD or flash cards.

Reason I'm asking is that i had previously read that as a general rule, RAW files take roughly double the space as JPEG files (Large JPEG files shot at the highest quality setting)

The article I read was the basis of my current setup of using 2GB Extreme III Flash card to save RAW files, and backing up JPEG files on a 1GB Extreme III SD Card. Rationale was that I would be able to fill both cards at roughly the same rate.

However, I'm currently able to shoot around 164-167 pictures before I run out of space. But while the 1GB SD card (with JPEG files) is full, it seems I still have space left on my 2GB Flash card (which i'm shooting RAW files with).


Now I'm looking at purchasing more memory cards and wanted to know if my current strategy is efficient (in ensuring both cards fill up at roughly the same rate).

I guess what I want to know is whether or not what I had read is correct (RAW files take double the space as Large JPEG feiles set at the hightest quality setting.

The "double the size" thing is an approximation at best. I just did a quick check of 1D-MkII RAWs on my laptop, and they vary from 5,687KB to 13,314KB, depending on ISO and subject matter. The average file size (from a sample of 2656 images shot in a wide variety of conditions) was 8689KB. A 2GB card should hold about 240 RAWs. I'd simply adjust the JPEG compression setting to make the JPEGs a bit smaller if a 2:1 correlation in file size is important to you. Personally, I don't bother with JPEGs; I shoot RAW and back up the RAW files.