Time-Lapse Storage Calculator

Why time-lapse shoots eat more storage than you expect

A time-lapse looks effortless — clouds boiling across the sky in thirty silky seconds. What you don't see are the one or two thousand full-resolution stills hiding behind that clip. Each frame of your "video" is really a photograph, and a single RAW frame can weigh 25 MB. Multiply that by 1,440 frames for a two-hour sunset and you're suddenly looking at roughly 35 GB for less than a minute of footage. Most failed time-lapse attempts don't fail on creativity; they fail because the memory card filled up at midnight, or the interval was wrong and the "two-minute" clip came out eleven seconds long.

The three numbers that decide everything

Every time-lapse is governed by three numbers. First, photo count = shoot duration divided by interval: a 4-hour shoot at a 5-second interval gives 2,880 photos. Second, storage = photo count times file size: those 2,880 frames at 8 MB per JPEG need about 22.5 GB. Third, clip length = photo count divided by frame rate: played at 30 fps, 2,880 frames become exactly 96 seconds of video. Change any one input and the other two move — shorten the interval for smoother motion and both the photo count and the storage bill climb.

Worked example — a two-hour sunset

Say you want a sunset time-lapse: 2 hours of shooting, one frame every 5 seconds, camera JPEGs (~8 MB each), finished at 30 fps. Photos: 2 x 3,600 / 5 = 1,440 photos. Storage: 1,440 x 8 MB = 11,520 MB, about 11.25 GB. Clip length: 1,440 / 30 = 48 seconds. So a 32 GB card holds the shoot with room to spare, and you know before leaving home that you'll come back with a 48-second clip — not a 10-second disappointment. Switch to RAW at 25 MB per frame and the same shoot needs about 35 GB: now you're packing the 64 GB card.

Practical tips before you press start

Match the interval to your subject: busy streets 1–3 seconds, drifting clouds 5–10 seconds, sunsets 3–5 seconds, stars 20–30 seconds, construction sites 5–15 minutes. Shoot RAW only if you'll actually color-grade the footage — it roughly triples storage. Lock exposure, focus, and white balance manually or the clip will flicker. Bring a spare battery: thousands of shutter actuations drain power faster than normal shooting. And leave 15–20% of the card empty; cards slow down and misbehave when completely full.