Battery Life on Go Pro 3

[Ouvea]

Hi Guys:

I'm rather disappointed with the extremely short battery life of the Go Pro 3. Then again, I don't discount user error and lack of inattention on my part as well. Shot about 10 minutes of video (2 five minute clips) and left the Go Pro 3 on standby mode apparently (on but not shooting). After about 1.5 to 1.75 hours, the unit was completely out of power. On hour on long scuba dives, I usually come back with one bar left and a limited number of footage (probably not even half and hour of footage).

I'm curious about how much usage time do you guys get on a single charge. Do you turn off the camera after each clip you take?

If that's the camera's limitation, what precautions have you taken to maximize the battery time. Out of curiosity as well, what do you usually get, time wise?

 

[Gombessa]

Yeah, it's not a DSLR. If you leave it on standby, it drains batteries just as fast as if you're filming constantly (1.5 hours or so); it's kind of ridiculous that there is so little power saving when you're not actually shooting and encoding and writing to file.

I first tried to maximize battery life by using "one button mode" - which starts filming as soon as you turn the camera on and stops filming as soon as you turn it off. It worked well enough, but the drawbacks are:

1: you can't easily change shooting modes and settings without creating extra 1-second garbage clips.
2. You have to hold down the power button for the full 5 second power-off duration to stop filming.
3. I've infrequently gotten corrupted video files while using one-button.

I've recently invested in the battery bakpak, which lets the camera standby for 2.5-3 hours, just enough for one dive. If I don't think I'll be filming for a few minutes, I'll power it down. Powering down the camera between shots makes it last as long as it takes you to accumulate 1.5-2 hours of continuous footage; whether that's 2 dives or 10.

 

[RockyHeap]

I just bought this combo set, for extra batteries and on-wall charging.


Should be sweet, I use these type of wall chargers and buy 2-3 batteries for any camera I use.


Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery (2-Pack) and Charger for GoPro HD HERO3 and GoPro AHDBT-201, AHDBT-301: Camera & Photo

 

[crosshairs]

Im still using the Hero -2, but the battery life on those sucks also.....so I did what Gombessa did and bought a battery back pac......

 

[flareside]

Which model of Hero 3? The black version has a considerably shorter battery life than the other two. You also may have a charging issue that has reduced your battery life.

 

[RockyHeap]

Im still using the Hero -2, but the battery life on those sucks also...........

I wouldn't say anything about any generation of Hero Camera 1-3 battery life "sucks", it just is what it is.



My Android Smart phone suck down a battery in under 24 hours, that doesn't mean it sucks. It just is...amp/hrs.


Any hero camera battery lasts long enough for me.

 

[crosshairs]

I wouldn't say anything about any generation of Hero Camera 1-3 battery life "sucks", it just is what it is.



My Android Smart phone suck down a battery in under 24 hours, that doesn't mean it sucks. It just is...amp/hrs.


Any hero camera battery lasts long enough for me.

your certainly entitled to your opinion, but when you need to take extra batteries or use the battery back pack for a 2 tank dive, then its safe to say, the battery life sucks.

I have a Contour camera that easily goes 3 hours on a single charge......the GoPro cant touch that

 

[yarik83]

I have been benchmarking my cameras pretty much since the day I bought them back in november. After countless tests modes that work longest are: 1080p 30fps protune=off whitebalance=auto and 720p 120fps protune=off whitebalance=auto. I have 32gb micro sd cards. When batteries take their last breath I am at 2.6 hours for 1080 and 2.3 hours for 720. Cameras=always on and recording. I have stock batteries on both cameras with expansion backpacks on both cameras. Protune shortens card capacity by 50% at least for me with above settings and battery life by 25% with above settings.

Longest I ever had my camera run was when I did 60 second timelapse which allowed cameras to take pictures for a huge time frame of 4.3 hours each.

Right now I am benchmarking cameras as we speak in 1080 30fps camera + 5 sec interval photo option and 720 60fps + 5 sec interval photo option. I will update this thread when it runs out of juice. I figure it would have to be around 2.3-2.6 hour mark as it seems to be for most stuff.

P.S. I agree that battery life is pathetic but I knew that in advance because I had same exact problem with my bonica camera until I had to custom order 3 batteries from china (not sold in usa) which increased capacity from 980 mah to 1800 mah and extended 45 minute record time to 2.5 hours record time per battery. With my gopros I plan to buy that wasabi thing after I do thorough research. I know gopro has a funkadoo thing where it charges off spare battery pack so I want to figure out how wasabis would come into play after main battery is dead.

 

[avigulf]

Maybe Hero4 will be with solar cells and other energy harvesting technics

 

[Marty Cerven]

Here is a thread with some battery runtime tests I did a while back, I have not got around to standby tests with the 3 black though but have done on earlier cameras. GoPro User Forum ? View topic - GoPro HD Hero 1/2/3 Battery life tests

In real world use on my last trip doing 3 1hr dives per day I did the first 2 dives using the hero 3b and batt bacpac then for the last dive I would use just the other camera with no bacpac. I wanted to get another batt bacpac but there was no Aussie stock before my trip. I didn't use the LCD screen but normally I would use that and get an hour dive in, I tend to keep the camera on all dive but not always recording but if there looks like a long patch of not much I wouod turn off the camera. On earlier dives at home I was using the same method recording full dives and battery remaining would be about the same either way if recording 2 hrs or 1hr 15 with 45 min in standby. I tried avoiding changing batteries outside as it was very hot and humid and didn't want to risk fogging by opening the housing during the day.

I always use protune in either 2.7k3p or 1080p60 underwater and these are 2 of the higher drain modes, I rarely do dives longer then an hour and if I do it use the batt bacpac which will give me close to 2hrs runtime. I wish the battery was bigger and think the small size isn't as important as if they stuffed a bigger battery into it but as Rocky says it is what it is and I love the results from the 3 black so just have to deal with it.

Also make sure the WiFi is turned off and the blue led is not flashing as this will drain more battery in standby and its of no use underwater. The WiFi button is quite sensitive and quite often it turns itself on when putting the camera into the housing.