How long can an iPhone record a video? It depends

If you’re wondering how long an iPhone can record, the short answer is that it doesn’t have a set limit, but it depends. Will you be working on a new project that involves filming with an iPhone? You’ve seen the “Recorded with iPhone” clips. Now is the time to adopt them in practice.

This guide will cover the most important factors when filming with an iPhone and offer some tips along the way.

How long can an iPhone record a video?

The maximum length of videos on an iPhone will depend mainly on the iPhone model, the fps of the video, the resolution, the format and other details such as the available battery.

Apple certainly doesn’t shy away from the fact that its phones make excellent recordings. For example, the company officially recorded a five-hour long video called “Hermitage” using the iPhone 11 Pro. This video was recorded in continuous 1080p and has a duration of 5 hours and 19 minutes. At the end of the long shoot, the iPhone still had 19% battery left.

Although the iPhone 11 Pro sets an exceptional record for filming on battery power, in practice any iPhone’s battery will drain much faster when using non-default apps like Filmic Pro, especially the older the phone gets. Therefore, it would be best if you keep your phone plugged in while recording.

Still, some people have reported that their iPhone video recordings sometimes shut down abruptly. This happened randomly, although only when they were recording very long movies.

Storage: Something to keep in mind when filming with an iPhone

Storage is an integral part of the filming process as it affects the length of a video. This section will cover the different ways to approach storage.

Your available storage

Internal storage is a crucial factor to consider when filming video clips. Unless you have 512GB of storage or more, you’ll eventually need some extra storage for your device. Android owners can expand their storage effortlessly; However, the same cannot be said for an iPhone. For example, Androids and many other phones have an SD card slot, but the iPhone does not.

If you’re not sure, follow these steps to find out how much free space your iPhone has:

1. Open Settings.
   
2. Select General.
   
3. Tap on About and find Availablewhich shows your available storage.
   

USB flash drives

If your internal storage is not enough, you can opt for USB sticks. Although they are not exactly aesthetically pleasing, they make up for it by offering good storage functionality. To use these lightweight accessories, you must connect them through the charging port. Many manufacturers make them, such as LEEF.

Hard drives connected to WI-FI

Although they will not help you when recording, you can opt for Wi-Fi connected hard drives to store your recorded videos. Make sure it is compatible with your iPhone. The advantage of this is that you can even add terabytes of storage to your phone. The disadvantages are much less portability and a different application ecosystem.

Still, you can use this storage option, not only with your phone, but also share videos with other devices. This option is primarily convenient if you frequently use a computer and other devices at home.

Cases with storage and battery

Another storage option is to get cases that come with additional storage, although you should check to see if anyone makes them for your model. Some cases like these even come with a battery. The extra power can be useful for long sessions in case you can’t find better power sources.

Cloud

You can choose to upload your videos to the cloud to make room for future filming. Apple iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox are just a few of the many alternatives available. They all come with a free and paid version, so it’s worth trying them out.

Resolution can vary the space and duration of a video

Your iPhone can make videos using different resolutions. Lower resolutions will require less space, allowing you to make more videos using the same storage, as expected. Therefore, this balance is between quality and quantity.

Newer iPhones can record at least 720p and 1080p resolutions effortlessly. Starting with the iPhone 6S series, the next iPhones in the line add 4K HD resolutions and slow motion captures at 120 and 240 frames per second.

In addition to resolution, the video encoding format also matters when it comes to storage. Devices running iOS 11 use HEVC by default.

To modify your recording format:

1. Gonna Settings.
   
2. Select Camera and then Formats.
   
3. Choose the High efficiency.
   

High Efficiency is short for High-Efficiency Video Coding, HEVC or h.265.

For example, according to Apple, hour-long 1080p videos shot at 60fps use about 11.7GB for h.264. The HEVC almost cuts that amount in half, specifically to 5.4 GB.

Examples of video lengths with different recording options

All of the following recording options, such as fps, format (HEVC), and resolution, will produce a 12 GB video:

• 720p HD movies at 30fps will produce a 5 hour long video using 12GB.
• 1080p HD at 30 fps will produce a video approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes long.
• 1080p HD at 60 fps will produce a 2 hour long video.
• 1080p HD slow motion at 120 fps will produce a video that is 1 hour and 6 minutes long.
• 1080p HD slow motion at 240 fps will produce a 24 minute long video.
• 4K HD at 24 fps will create a video that is 1 hour and 24 minutes long.
• 4K HD at 30 fps will produce a video that is 1 hour and 6 minutes long.
• 4K HD at 60 fps will produce a 30 minute long video.

The given record times will increase with more storage being proportional and, in the worst case, decreasing. So if you have 24 GB, you can expect the length of the video above to roughly double.

Tips for recording videos with iPhone

Check out the following tips to get the most out of your videos.

Use better alternatives to Apple’s default camera app

Maybe you want to produce higher quality videos than those offered by the official Apple Camera app. If so, you may choose to use another video recording app, such as Professional cinema, found in the App Store. This application allows you to use 50 Mbit/s, a higher bit rate than the standard 24 Mbit/s. Please note that the higher the bitrate, the more space the video will take up.

Lighting matters

Make sure the area you will be recording in is well lit. Light is a factor that affects all mobile cameras. Also, try not to use different light sources as the camera lens may have difficulty combining the different colors that each light source emits.

Adjust your screen brightness to record

If you plan to record during a long session, having the screen brightness as low as possible will reduce battery consumption. Doing this allows for slightly longer sessions if, for some reason, you can’t charge the iPhone while recording.

Adjust your white balance

If you want to make sure your video looks natural and has the right colors, you can manually adjust the white balance. Adjusting the white balance allows you to get as many accurate colors as possible.

Record horizontally with a mount and using airplane mode

Make sure to record your videos horizontally while in airplane mode. Bring a stand to the table for added stability, if necessary. This combination allows for better video output, saves battery life, and provides more productivity by eliminating unexpected distractions.

Grids and the rule of thirds

Use the rule of thirds to properly frame your production. This rule is used in photography and video. Describe the basic compositional structure of your film. To use it, activate the capture grid in your camera app.

A good microphone is worth it

Good sound can make a difference. Therefore, if you are not satisfied with your phone’s microphone, you can opt for a high-quality external microphone to ensure that the sound quality is excellent.

Make sure the microphone is compatible with your model.

Trim your videos to save space

You can always crop any video to get that extra space, no matter what type of video it is. Check out these steps to trim videos on iPhone:

1. Open the video you want to trim and select Edit at the top right or bottom of the screen.
   
2. Tap an edge of the video scrubber at the bottom of the screen. Doing this will display yellow edit handles.
   
3. Move the editing controls where you want to start and end your video and then tap Made followed by Save as new clip.
   

Film some long takes using iPhone

The iPhone is a great camera replacement thanks to Apple’s focus on building top-notch phone cameras and offering polished apps for editing. With the iPhone 14 Pro’s 1TB storage, you can definitely create exceptionally long videos that are stored directly on the phone, but you certainly pay for the additional storage space.

What is your longest recorded video to date? What and how do you plan to film next? Let us know in the comments section below.