Do cell phones have a max video recording length excluding capacity?

[johnjohns]

I have read that DSLRs have a max video length of 30 min for various reasons, but do cell phones have a similar max video recording time? If I buy a 64 gb microSD card and record HD, will it cut off at an hour or at the battery/memory full markers?

 

[Guest]

Some do, some don't. It depends on manufacturer but the ones I've seen will record until it runs out of memory. I believe the older android OSes had a limit of 2GB per file and newer ones have a 4GB limit since Android uses FAT32 as the file system.

 

[johnjohns]

I'm looking to get the new Sony Z2 or Samsung S5 for the 4k capability and am wondering if I'm going to run into any issues recording videos of longer length. I would figure they would solve those issues by now with video that advanced but I am having my doubts.

 

[Guest]

Unless newer versions of Android use an alternate file system, all of them will have a 4GB file limit because of FAT32. So your recording time will be limited only by your video recording quality. Recording at 4K resolution would eat up a 4GB file pretty quickly versus at 720p. As I said in the first reply, some may have a software limit on how long you can record any quality regardless of how much space you have. If you want unlimited recording time, you need to use a digital video camera instead of a photo camera or a cell phone.