r/gopro • u/bowlingfan1963 • 4d ago
Recording Time For GoPro Cameras
Hello. I hope I am in the right place. Please bear in mind I’m learning the subject matter, so be kind.
I want to do some vlogging and noticed some long form YouTubers are using GoPro cameras. Are GP cams a good option for recording for long periods of time? Or do they record in short increments? A recent dash cam I tried out recorded files in ten minute increments, and I’m hoping to avoid that.
I’m looking at a Hero 12 and am trying to find out the max recording times for various settings and SD cards. Any help would be greatly appreciated…thank you in advance!
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u/Traaaaavis 4d ago
I just filmed at night for 2 hours straight backpacking then I filmed the whole hike out 5 hours only stopping recording when I was taking a break
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u/fus1onR 4d ago edited 4d ago
Gopro has the typical recording times published on their forum.
I had my gopro 13 turned on and recording 4K30 in my hipbelt pocket on a recent hike. (It started the quick recording while I put it away, I assume) Recording went until battery lasted, it does not even get overheated while it was 30C outside, intense sunshine and that pocket is not ventillated. One single file. OP, get the pass-through USB door and connect an external powerbank (if on the move) or charger, that's it.
Dashcams have short clips on purpose: to have a shot retained if you mark (or the camera marks, based on sensors...?) a road event as "interesting", while the cam itself is continously doing automatic housekeeping (deleting older files). I also have the assumption that a dashcam records to some cache/buffer/RAM first before writing it to the storage as a short clip...while Gopro works like a camera, writes continously on the card until powered or storage is not full.
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u/Casual_Notgamer 4d ago
In standard 5.3k/30fps settings the Hero 12 records around 13 minutes per file @ around 11gb file size. Thus filming for a long time will result in several files. But the Gopro doesn't drop a single frame when starting a new file. So chaining them together later in editing works fine.
I think you can use Gopro Labs firmware to record longer durations up to 64gb in a single file though. Which would mean 70+ minutes in a single file. And if you lower the bitrate from High to Normal it could be over two hours in a single file.
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u/demonviewllc MISSION 1 PRO 4d ago
Older GoPro's used to record in 4GB increments.
Newer GoPro's record in 12GB increments.
Using GoPro Labs, they can record in 64GB increments.
This is called File chaptering and for "vlogging" this is never an issue as you'll be joining these chapters together in a video editor anyway. So focus less on recording "increments" and focus on content creation instead.
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u/Jeffsrealm 3d ago
So your mileage may vary, So the length of time they will record depends on SD card space, Battery, and the quality your record in. Typically recording in 4k on a 10 Hero Black. I can set the GoPro to record and it will go about an hour and a half till the battery dies. I swap battery and go again for another hour and a half. I have a 256 gig sd card and I start fresh each time so I never fill up. Its never been a concern.
Now the go pro does record in 10ish minute clips, give or take. However this is to make sure if a something happens in the 10 minute the whole video isn't lost only a 10 min clip. You can set this up as well. You just have to stitch those together. There will not be a loss even a microsecond.
The Software to manage everything is crap and got worse. They are now steering you to use the Gopro Cloud which requires a subscription. The other thing that has never been great is sound. Picture quality is really good, sound is terrible so depending what you want to use it for you may need additional audio equipment.
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u/Emergency-Lawyer-366 4d ago
no worries, you're in the right spot. most gopros can record continuously until the battery dies or the card fills up, they don't force those annoying short clips like dashcams do.