GoPro Hero2 battery life with LCD back?

[thomjinx]

Hello,

I am considering purchasing a GoPro Hero2 setup for my upcoming trip to Thailand.

Do any of the Hero users here use the video back and if so, how is the battery life with that on?

Thanks!
Thomjinx

 

[jcclink]

Half normal battery life at best. Turn off LCD when not in use. Suggest a couple of extra batteries if you're going to be using the camera often. And a separate charger vs having to charge with battery in camera.

 

[thomjinx]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't have the Hero2 yet, so I don't know what "normal' battery life is, let alone half.

Will it last an hour? 30 min? 20 min?

Is it easy to turn the LCD on and off when underwater?

Thanks again!
Thomjinx

Half normal battery life at best. Turn off LCD when not in use. Suggest a couple of extra batteries if you're going to be using the camera often. And a separate charger vs having to charge with battery in camera.

 

[Wolvan]

I just bought a new Hero2 a few weeks ago just before going to Kona Hawaii for diving. From a full charge I could get in 2 dives of heavy use (about 40 min per dive) and be at 1/3 battery bars. I recorded an entire 40 minute night dive with manta rays with no issue. One option too is to get an external battery pack/charger (I got one from New Trent for use on my wife's and my phone's too) Uses an USB connection that you can charge anything from. I would use that to recharge my Hero 2 between dives.

 

[thomjinx]

Thanks, Wolvan.

That is exactly what I was trying to find out.

That makes me think that even if I use the LCD back, I can get one dive on a charge. I can then switch batteries between dives.

Have you been happy with your Hero 2 ?

I just bought a new Hero2 a few weeks ago just before going to Kona Hawaii for diving. From a full charge I could get in 2 dives of heavy use (about 40 min per dive) and be at 1/3 battery bars. I recorded an entire 40 minute night dive with manta rays with no issue. One option too is to get an external battery pack/charger (I got one from New Trent for use on my wife's and my phone's too) Uses an USB connection that you can charge anything from. I would use that to recharge my Hero 2 between dives.

 

[Wolvan]

I only used it the one week in Kona, and I have no extra stuff for it, just the stock features, but I still got some good underwater video, especially of the manta ray night dive. I made my own lanyard for it and tied it off to my BC. (A tool lanyard from work heh) I will get some sorta of flat lens/color correction for the next time I go diving, hopefully this summer. The video came out pretty good with the basic case, but the underwater pictures had some real blur distortion.

*edit* I was generally not running the camera the entire dive. I would leave it switched on, but turn on/off video as needed and take pictures as needed. The only dive I left it recording the entire dive was the manta ray dive which was 30+ minutes of footage. Don't remember exactly how much battery was left after.

One thing to watch for when diving; I did this while doing some snorkeling with porpoise between dives and missed some great video of them 10 feet away from me. When you turn on the camera, if you hold down the power button a second to long it will switch you from video to camera mode. CHECK every time. That was the one time I didn't check (it happened several times) and it bit me and cost me some great footage. Was rushing trying to get into the water to snorkel with them. I posted a short video clip I took in the thread about the Hero2 flat lens case of the night dive. It came out pretty good, considering my limitations.

 

[Marty Cerven]

With the LCD I can get 2 full dives around 1.5hrs without the LCD I get very close to the rated 2.5hrs of the gopro. Battery life with both the Gopro HD Hero and HD Hero2 are pretty much the same for me. Just make sure you keep the camera off when not in use as they do use too much power in standby mode I think, you can set it up to automatically turn off when not recording after a set time period and I keep this on 60 seconds to make sure I don't waste battery when not recording.

I think getting a second battery is a better idea then using an external USB charger, you can replace the battery in seconds but using an external battery to charge would still take a few hours to recharge the battery. You need to charge the external battery anyway so you may as well just charge an extra gopro battery before use.

 

[Mud&Rox]

sorry not trying to hijack the thread but I have a question about the LCD.....I have the hero 2 and was looking at getting the LCD but I have the gopro mounted upside down and use the menu to flip the vid right side up....anyway my question to those with the LCD is can you flip the screen to show up correctly when the camera is filming inverted??

 

[jcclink]

Regarding my suggestion for a separate external battery charger, I forgot to state that this should be a 110/220 type charger, not USB. I don't see the need to tie up computer resources to charge batteries. Check out Drift Innovation, Contour and Camsports HD Cameras & GoPro HD Wall Charger | rpmgear.com (or similar).

 

[fdog]

Camera without LCD back: ~105 minutes continuous shooting, approx 10% less in cold water

Camera with LCD back (LCD on): continuous shooting, ~45 minutes
Camera with LCD back (LCD off): continuous shooting, ~105 minutes


All the best, James