Sick of the 5 MINUTE LIMIT imposed for 4K and/or 8K video recording on Samsung (S21 for example), Huawei, oneplus, HTC, Xiao/red/mi, LG, BlackBerry (priv, keyone, motion, key2/LE) and other android devices?

I’m pretty sure you are. It’s senseless these days.

I tried numerous tricks to get it to save 4K (or 8K) video to the SD card, none of them worked, because the resolution was limited to 720p at 60 fps. Required a “class 10 or higher memory card”.

That is, until I came across open camera, an open source full-featured (and rather professional) photo and video recording application for android devices.

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.sourceforge.opencamera

Not only does it allow you to record video to the SD card, it also allows choosing the maximum resolution possible that your device can support!

That and you can also customise the recording format (h.264 or HEVC aka h.265) and change the bit rate too, something the default, stock camera application that came with your smart/phone, won’t allow at all.

This isn’t to say I won’t be using my camcorder for far better videos, it just allows me to take FULL ADVANTAGE of my device (or any other device for that matter).

Trust me, nothing beats 40x optical zoom on a large lens, and a removable battery, tripod socket and a swing-out positional screen. That and three batteries. I should include, I have a second, though, older unit, I also use.

All that aside, there is an setting you will need to turn on in the open camera application’s settings, to allow it to save to any memory card.

That being the storage access framework. Without it, the application won’t at all be able to save to external storage, thanks to dirty old Google’s restrictions. Yeah, everybody hates that, but meh. It’s solved easily.

Thanks for reading this blog post. It may be edited further to add more branded smartphones with the same restriction for recording 4K and 8K video.

NOTE: I WAS NOT paid or even asked to write this article. I simply decided to do it out of my own free will. I hope it helps!

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