Record a camera

Record a camera on its own when you want a piece to camera with no screen in it. Frame Job records the chosen camera at the chosen format’s highest frame rate.

Menu: File ▸ New Recording…
Keys: ⌥⌘N
Where: New Recording panel ▸ Source ▸ Camera
Needs: The Camera permission, and the Microphone permission when you choose a microphone. Screen Recording isn't needed.
Agent tools: record_screen

Record a camera on its own

Open the recorder panel with ⌥⌘N and choose Camera in Source.
Choose the camera in Camera and its size and frame rate in Format.
Check the live picture in the preview under Format.
Choose a microphone in Microphone, or leave it Off to record the camera alone. The microphone can be the camera’s own, if macOS lists it, and it’s recorded to its own file beside the movie.
Choose where it goes in Record Into.
Press Record. After a 3, 2, 1 countdown recording starts, and the panel stays up. The first time, macOS asks for the Camera permission, and for Microphone if you chose one. See Recording permissions.
Press Stop in the panel when you’re done.

With no camera connected, pressing Record says “No camera is connected.”

System Audio, Show Clicks, Size, Include Frame Job windows, Rate and the other rows for the screen grey out, and keep their values for next time. Microphone and Record Into stay live.

To record a camera and the screen at once, see Record a camera beside the screen.

Choose a camera

Camera lists each connected camera by name, or a single row, None connected, when there isn’t one. An iPhone used as a Continuity Camera has “(Continuity Camera)” after its name.

It starts on the camera you used last, then the Mac’s preferred camera, then the first built-in camera, then the first one connected.

The row is live when Source is Camera, or a display or window has Record the camera too ticked, and greyed out otherwise.

Choose a format

Format sets the size and frame rate the camera records at.

Best comes first and names what it will pick, for example Best (1760×1328 at 30 fps). The camera’s other formats follow, written like 1920×1080 at 30 fps. Sizes wider than tall come first, then square, then taller than wide, each largest first.

Each format records at its highest frame rate, so you can’t choose a lower rate within a format’s range.

It starts on the format you used last when the chosen camera has it, otherwise Best. The row is live and greyed out at the same times as Camera.

What Best picks

Best is the largest format wider than tall that reaches 30 fps or more, at that format’s highest rate. If two formats have the same area, the higher rate wins, and then the one the camera lists first.

If no format wider than tall reaches 30 fps, Frame Job looks at every shape the same way. If none of those does either, it uses the format the camera is already set to.

Check the picture

The preview under Format shows the chosen camera live at the chosen format, as the movie will record it. It isn’t mirrored, so you see what’s being filmed, and the whole picture is fitted inside it.

It appears only when Source is Camera, or a display or window has Record the camera too ticked, and it stays live through the countdown and the recording.

Sometimes it shows words instead of a picture.

The preview reads	What it means
“No camera is connected.”	There’s no camera to show.
“The preview shows once Frame Job may use the camera.”	Frame Job doesn’t have the Camera permission yet. Showing the panel never asks for it. Pressing Record does.
“The camera is recording.”	An agent is recording the camera. The picture comes back when it’s done.
Another sentence	The reason the camera couldn’t start. To try again, choose another source and then Camera, or close and reopen the panel.

How the camera warms up

Once Frame Job has the Camera permission, the camera starts as soon as the panel shows it, so it’s ready before you record, and its light stays on while the panel shows Camera. Choosing another source turns it off, unless it’s a display or window with Record the camera too ticked, and so does closing the panel.

A camera that’s starting cold can take a moment to run at its full rate. Frame Job gives it up to a second before recording begins, so the recording starts steady, and then holds the camera to the chosen format and rate for the whole recording.

If it never settles, the recording begins anyway, and the note when it lands names the rate it ran at, for example “The camera ran at 24.3 fps, not its 30, in the 1 s it was given to settle; the recording began anyway.” If no steady frames came at all, it says that instead.

Stop and pause from the panel

The panel stays on screen while a camera records, because nothing on screen is being filmed.

The controls lock and the microphone’s level meter stays live.
The footnote shows ● or ❚❚ with the time.
Record reads Stop, with a Pause or Resume button beside it.

Choose Close and the panel goes away, but the recording carries on under the menu-bar item. See Start, pause and stop for the other ways to stop.

Where a camera recording lands

The movie is saved as Camera Recording 2026-10-26 at 17.14.33.mov in ~/Movies/Frame Job Recordings, with any microphone in its own .m4a file beside it.

In an open project, the movie lands at the playhead on the front track if it fits, otherwise on a new track in front. The microphone lands on a new back track named Microphone.

As a new project, the canvas takes the movie’s size and the format’s frame rate, rounded to a whole number.

See Where a recording lands for the full rules, and When a recording stops on its own for a camera that’s unplugged mid-take.

With an agent

An agent picks a camera by its name or id, and a format as 1920x1080@30, 1920x1080 for that size’s highest rate, or best. If the camera or format isn’t there, the call stops with a list of what is. rate and the other screen settings can’t be used with a camera. Its recording starts once the camera has settled, and its time counts from the camera’s first frame. See Record with record_screen.