Hello,

I bought an Action 4 in Germany and the firmware ist obviously under the EU regulations which shuts the camera off at 48° Celcius.
I will move to the US where the EU regulation is not required. Is there a way to install non EU firmware on my Action 4 or do I have to purchase a Gopro Hero 12 to get rid of the overheating shutdown?
Best regards
Mannheimer

Is there really a rule in Europe that says you have to shut down cameras at 48deg C?

Hi, Mannheimer. Thank you for reaching out. This is a good question, let me confirm this with our relevant team.

So you want gopro that doesn't protect you?

Not sure it is 48c more like closer to 70c or so

johansenfoto Posted at 3-8 07:05
So you want gopro that doesn't protect you?

Not sure it is 48c more like closer to 70c or so

Yes, I want a Gopro that kills me.
But let's be serious: There is a rule in the EU which leads to shorter recording times with the Action 4, it doesn't matter if is 48, 53, 54.23123123° or any other number. The fact is: it shuts down earlier and I don't want that when I don't have to.
You can easily check this by watching overheating tests from Action 4 on youtube. There are people getting 1h+ recording and there are some only getting ~25min. Guess where the youtubers come from.

But can we please not focus on an existing fact I already checked and focus on the main question. Thanks

PS: if you want to look it up yourself it is stated in the regulation SFS-EN IEC 62368-1:2020. The temperature a device is allowed to reach depends on the type of expected interaction with the user.

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-8 07:23
Yes, I want a Gopro that kills me.
But let's be serious: There is a rule in the EU which leads to shorter recording times with the Action 4, it doesn't matter if is 48, 53, 54.23123123° or any other number. The fact is: it shuts down earlier and I don't want that when I don't have to.
You can easily check this by watching overheating tests from Action 4 on youtube. There are people getting 1h+ recording and there are some only getting ~25min. Guess where the youtubers come from.

What I ment is if gopro doesn't follow EU laws, then you are not protected against if the camera get faulty by overheating.
I know about all the overheating, we have been discussing it here on the forum for about 2 years or so now and with OA3 it only needed a .txt file for override that.

But OA4 is not ment to be used for vlogging, not announced as a vlogging camera like OA3 were.
Also gopro overheats way faster in most tests against OA4.

How you use/plan to use your camera?

What I've gathered so far, and you can find out too if you do some online reading, that most of the time the culprit is the memory card and not whether your FW is US or EU based. Most of the "overheat comparison" tests on YT don't even mention what memory card they're using. I think the real test would be is to use the same memory card in 3 or more of the SAME cameras. Say you have have five Osmo Action 4 cameras.

1. Put the memory card into camera 1. Run the test.
2. Remove the memory card from camera 1 and put it in camera 2. Run the test.
3. Repeat in all cameras.

Ideally, you should get very close results in each camera because you used the exact same memory card. If one of the results is substantially different, then you know it's an issue with the camera (possibly battery).

"There are people getting 1h+ recording and there are some only getting ~25min. Guess where the youtubers come from."
I dunno. Where? I'm in the EU and although I only did a heat test once with my OA3, I got over 1 hour recording on 4k 30 (I believe it was 30fps). The camera didn't overheat. The battery died. The camera wasn't even hot. It was warm but not hot by any means.

You did not say anything about whether your camera overheats or not. If your camera doesn't even overheat, why even bother with the FW? If it does, i'd try other memory cards first.

osmonauta Posted at 3-8 15:11
What I've gathered so far, and you can find out too if you do some online reading, that most of the time the culprit is the memory card and not whether your FW is US or EU based. Most of the "overheat comparison" tests on YT don't even mention what memory card they're using. I think the real test would be is to use the same memory card in 3 or more of the SAME cameras. Say you have have five Osmo Action 4 cameras.

1. Put the memory card into camera 1. Run the test.

As I mentioned above, I don't want to discuss about facts. I did my research and tested enough to know that the shorter recording time due to overheating is based on the EU firmware.

A bad SD card will make the camera heat up quicker, and wind or cold environments will reduce overheating but there will always be a difference between EU and non EU firmware.
Even non EU firmware can cause overheating but since the threshold is much higher it will take longer.


I just did a test with Gopro Hero 11 and OA4 with the same card and got 31 minutes recording on the OA4 and 48 minutes from the Hero 11. I then picked a OA4 with US firmware, the exact same sd card and surprise the OA4 recorded over 110 minutes untill the battery died. The environment and recording was 100% identical. Settings were 4k 30fps and factory reset.

The test confirmed what I allready knew, so let's please focus on a solution and not about if there is a problem or not.

das Abschalten der Kamera wird doch ueber den Standort geregelt?Sobald die Mimo App benutzt wird ist die Begrenzung wieder an! Einfacher geht es mit dem Crackfile

DJI Gamora Posted at 3-8 04:47
Hi, Mannheimer. Thank you for reaching out. This is a good question, let me confirm this with our relevant team.

Hello, Have you been able to find out more about this topic?

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-14 02:49
Hello, Have you been able to find out more about this topic?

Hi, Mannheimer. Please check my DM regarding the topic we discussed. Thank you.

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-14 02:49
Hello, Have you been able to find out more about this topic?

Just remember to reapply if you format the card

LV_Forestry Posted at 3-8 04:37
Is there really a rule in Europe that says you have to shut down cameras at 48deg C?

Yes, pretty much, theres an easy solution though

Some cameras include a switch in the menu system to overcome this, so I’m guessing that this is perfectly legal and perhaps something that could be incorporated into the Actions?
There was even a time when cameras didn't offer 30fps in the UK. 25 or 25i and that was it. Sony camcorders STILL do this unless you hack them.

I've made further overheating tests which lead to an interesting result:

Action 4 EU Software --> Overheating after 34 minutes --> Camera was warm, but comfortable to hold
GoPro Hero 11 --> Overheating after 52 minutes --> Camera was very hot, can't hold it longer than 5 or 6 seconds , the metal mount at the bottom was even to hot to touch
Action 4 US Software --> 113 minutes recording until battery died --> Camera was just before very hot, but could be hold in the hand

I don't have a thermometer but according to my own sensitvity the GoPro got way hotter than even the Action 4 in the US Version.
Gopro defenitly has a highter overheating threshold or is just measuring on a different point in the camera. Otherwhise I can't explain why both cameras under EU regulation shut down on different temperatures.

Think the hottest I got my camera and reading was 163 degrees  yeah the front was too hot to handle, could have  Melted cheese on it (vic Barry may have done that years ago Lol)

Fishycomics Posted at 3-15 03:37
Think the hottest I got my camera and reading was 163 degrees  yeah the front was too hot to handle, could have  Melted cheese on it (vic Barry may have done that years ago Lol)

Are you talking celsius or the crazy I don't have any precise scalable meaning fahrenheit

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-15 03:42
Are you talking celsius or the crazy I don't have any precise scalable meaning fahrenheit

oh the humor

Fishycomics Posted at 3-15 03:46
oh the humor

So you gave me two answers. It is fahrenheit and you don't have humor

Anyway 164 Fahrenheit (73°C) is still quite hot. At 60°C Protein stagnates.

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-15 03:50
So you gave me two answers. It is fahrenheit and you don't have humor

Anyway 164 Fahrenheit (73°C) is still quite hot. At 60°C Protein stagnates.

too hot to handle was a great Movie. and yeah like hte three stooges,  back to the Billboard (topic)

Nah, that was the title of my cooking show.

think i said in this vid 168  degrees

MANNHEIMER Posted at 3-14 02:49
Hello, Have you been able to find out more about this topic?

Hi, Mannheimer. Please check my updated DM regarding the topic we discussed. Thank you.

lutzmix Posted at 3-8 20:06
das Abschalten der Kamera wird doch ueber den Standort geregelt?Sobald die Mimo App benutzt wird ist die Begrenzung wieder an! Einfacher geht es mit dem Crackfile