Hero3 Black testing underwater
- Thread starter Marty Cerven
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I went to bestbuy and shelves were wiped. I proceeded to spend half a day going store to store and everywhere they were all sold out. I ended up going to tigerdirect.com store (formerly known as compusa) and purchased 2 @30 bucks a pop.
BDSC
Contributor
The first store I tried was sold out but the one about 5 miles away had 34 in stock as of this evening.
OP
Marty Cerven
Contributor
If the camera is on while connected to USB there is no charge light, if the camera is off while connected then the red LED will indicate it is charging, this will go off once done. I always charge mine in with the camera off and I also use a card reader to get data off my card as its much faster then using the camera to transfer the files especially if you have 20-50GB on it.
Just make sure you have the current latest firmware installed as the first version did have some charging issues but this was fixed. Best way to test your firmware version is do an in camera "delete all" format, this will then create a file on your SD card in the MISC folder. Open the file called version.txt and it will give you your firmware version, below is the current latest version.
If this isn't the same as your version go here and update to this version as its fixed most early release bugs. HERO3: Black Support
To double up on what Marty said, yes my Hero3 is much different than Hero2 for charging.
Make sure your Hero3 is not "turned on" while charging, A usb symbol and blinking 3 bars on the LCD battery isn't really charging I've found.
Plug Camera in while "off", red light turns on stays on, and charges until red light turns off and then will be fully charged.
As far as cameras locking up, make sure to format your SD card IN the camera. Even with a brand new SD card, and lots of pics and video shot, camera sometimes froze up and needed battery pulled and re-installed to reset.
GoPro Tech support (they really are great friendly and genuinely helpful) really made a point to be sure to routinely format cards in camera, even with the latest Firmware installed.
Sandisk 32 gig Class10 in mine. Be sure to use a quality card, don't know if in the H3 generation if it is as important in H2's or before, but you get what you pay for. 32 gig Sandisk at Costco $23 bucks.
I'm really looking forward to a Wall Wart remote battery charger, so as to not have to charge in camera. but that said, the new Camera door is a real pain to take on/off too.
Make sure your Hero3 is not "turned on" while charging, A usb symbol and blinking 3 bars on the LCD battery isn't really charging I've found.
Plug Camera in while "off", red light turns on stays on, and charges until red light turns off and then will be fully charged.
As far as cameras locking up, make sure to format your SD card IN the camera. Even with a brand new SD card, and lots of pics and video shot, camera sometimes froze up and needed battery pulled and re-installed to reset.
GoPro Tech support (they really are great friendly and genuinely helpful) really made a point to be sure to routinely format cards in camera, even with the latest Firmware installed.
Sandisk 32 gig Class10 in mine. Be sure to use a quality card, don't know if in the H3 generation if it is as important in H2's or before, but you get what you pay for. 32 gig Sandisk at Costco $23 bucks.
I'm really looking forward to a Wall Wart remote battery charger, so as to not have to charge in camera. but that said, the new Camera door is a real pain to take on/off too.
OP
Marty Cerven
Contributor
This is probably the main reason I haven't had issues as this is something I do prior to every use, I copy the files from my SD card to my computer to transfer data. Then I do an in camera format to delete all and make sure the card is ready to go for next time. GoPro's in the past have been quite fussy with SD cards that have any extra files on them not recorded by the camera itself.
Totally agree here with Rocky, a quality SD card is very important to have trouble free operation. Also ensure its genuine as there have been lots of SD card scams online in the last few years, The H3b needs a good c10 card and some brands may not be quite as god a deal as they may appear.
Sandisk prices have come down so much this year its hard to see why you would buy any other brand. Im using the Sandisk mobile Ultra c10 64GB micro sdxc card and I hope the drop in price doesn't mean a drop in quality but so far they have performed as well as always. They still come with a lifetime warranty so at these lower prices they will do the best they can to avoid having to replace too many cards in the future as replacing them would likely hurt even more with lower margins.
Doing some additional benchmarking this morning.
1080 60fps recorded about 30 minutes then beeped 3 times and stopped.
720 120fps recorded about 30 minutes and continued to film.
I went ahead and stopped footage on 720 camera to preserve spirit of the bench mark.
I placed both (warm to touch) cameras on another surface and pressed to continue recording. Battery life on 2 cameras is as follows:
1080 one had 1 large battery with 2 rows of bar on it. Both front bars on both rows were gone.
720 one also had 1 large battery with 2 rows on it. Only 1 bar on top row was missing by this point.
As I am writing this it is exactly 1 hour since I began this benchmark.
1080 camera once again stopped.
I stopped 720 camera too to make benchmark fair.
1080 camera is now missing 2 bars on top and 1 bar on bottom.
720 camera is now missing 2 bars on top row only.
Amazingly both 1080 and 720 on identical san disk cards both show same time left.. It almost looks like 720 120fps is using about same amount of data as 1080 60fps.
My benchmark will conclude when one of 32gb memory sticks or batteries can't take more. At this point its obvious that batteries will outlast the card (which is good) but its also obvious that there is overheating issue. According to manual it says that camera has a safety mechanism which stops filming if camera overheats.
At this time I am doing my benchmark strictly out of housing on top of wood and glass surfaces, moving cameras from their spots every 20 minutes.
1080 camera is almost certainly hotter than 720 camera.
It is now 1.5 hours into benchmark
1080 camera is now missing 2 bars on top and 2 bars on bottom
720 camera is still missing 2 bars on top
I did notice one interesting thing. When I stop footage it puts 1 bar back into display on 1080 camera. I think its due to battery load when filming.
2 hours into benchmark
1080 camera only has 1 bar left. Entire bottom row is gone and only bar is on top which would be true considering that its supposed to use backpack battery first.
720 camera has 2 bars left. 1 on top 1 on bottom.
At this point with identical record times 720 camera has 31:31 minutes left on card. 1080 camera has 30:27 left on card.
At this point when I pressed record again 1080 camera locked up and turned off. After removing both batteries and letting them cool it appears that 1080 battery is drained.
Total shooting time for this camera is 1hr 45mins 46 sec
And my 720 camera just stopped. Last file got corrupted so camera is attempting to fix it now. Camera turned off. Right before it shut off I had about 5 minutes left of storage space.
camera once again is displaying that repair signal. While repairing battery died. It also says that total video time is 4hrs 20 mins. Now I know for a fact that its not true because I started recording at 8:10am and its now 11:30am... so I guess there is some sort of duplication going on. Bottom line is that this camera outlived my 2 hour target time by a long shot.
1080 60fps recorded about 30 minutes then beeped 3 times and stopped.
720 120fps recorded about 30 minutes and continued to film.
I went ahead and stopped footage on 720 camera to preserve spirit of the bench mark.
I placed both (warm to touch) cameras on another surface and pressed to continue recording. Battery life on 2 cameras is as follows:
1080 one had 1 large battery with 2 rows of bar on it. Both front bars on both rows were gone.
720 one also had 1 large battery with 2 rows on it. Only 1 bar on top row was missing by this point.
As I am writing this it is exactly 1 hour since I began this benchmark.
1080 camera once again stopped.
I stopped 720 camera too to make benchmark fair.
1080 camera is now missing 2 bars on top and 1 bar on bottom.
720 camera is now missing 2 bars on top row only.
Amazingly both 1080 and 720 on identical san disk cards both show same time left.. It almost looks like 720 120fps is using about same amount of data as 1080 60fps.
My benchmark will conclude when one of 32gb memory sticks or batteries can't take more. At this point its obvious that batteries will outlast the card (which is good) but its also obvious that there is overheating issue. According to manual it says that camera has a safety mechanism which stops filming if camera overheats.
At this time I am doing my benchmark strictly out of housing on top of wood and glass surfaces, moving cameras from their spots every 20 minutes.
1080 camera is almost certainly hotter than 720 camera.
It is now 1.5 hours into benchmark
1080 camera is now missing 2 bars on top and 2 bars on bottom
720 camera is still missing 2 bars on top
I did notice one interesting thing. When I stop footage it puts 1 bar back into display on 1080 camera. I think its due to battery load when filming.
2 hours into benchmark
1080 camera only has 1 bar left. Entire bottom row is gone and only bar is on top which would be true considering that its supposed to use backpack battery first.
720 camera has 2 bars left. 1 on top 1 on bottom.
At this point with identical record times 720 camera has 31:31 minutes left on card. 1080 camera has 30:27 left on card.
At this point when I pressed record again 1080 camera locked up and turned off. After removing both batteries and letting them cool it appears that 1080 battery is drained.
Total shooting time for this camera is 1hr 45mins 46 sec
And my 720 camera just stopped. Last file got corrupted so camera is attempting to fix it now. Camera turned off. Right before it shut off I had about 5 minutes left of storage space.
camera once again is displaying that repair signal. While repairing battery died. It also says that total video time is 4hrs 20 mins. Now I know for a fact that its not true because I started recording at 8:10am and its now 11:30am... so I guess there is some sort of duplication going on. Bottom line is that this camera outlived my 2 hour target time by a long shot.
excellent work Yarik.
thanks for sharing.
Yes these Hero 3's run hotter than my Hero 2's.
I haven't dove them in our 52F Puget Sound Seattle water yet, but me thinks I'm going to have to double up on the GoPro Moisture muncher absorber strips to prevent fogging of lens.
hawaii trip coming up soon, that'll be the first real ringing out of the Hero3 Black underwater with a couple of filter set-ups.
thanks for sharing.
Yes these Hero 3's run hotter than my Hero 2's.
I haven't dove them in our 52F Puget Sound Seattle water yet, but me thinks I'm going to have to double up on the GoPro Moisture muncher absorber strips to prevent fogging of lens.
hawaii trip coming up soon, that'll be the first real ringing out of the Hero3 Black underwater with a couple of filter set-ups.
OP
Marty Cerven
Contributor
Yarik, what temperatures are you doing your tests in, all my full battery runs went without a single shutdown at between 20 to 24c. They were all out of the housing but I have run full tests outside with it in enclosed housing in warmer conditions without a shutdown. If your not in a very hot climate its possible one has an issue with the processor running a little too hot, there was one guy at goprouser that was getting the thermal issue at temps much lower then mine.
The total recording times with pro tune on should all be pretty much the same as they all do 45Mbps with it off most modes vary between 20 and 35pMbps
The total recording times with pro tune on should all be pretty much the same as they all do 45Mbps with it off most modes vary between 20 and 35pMbps
Marty I am doing this in comfort of my home out of housing on top of ceramic tile floor, glass table, ceramic tile table, plywood/fiberboard book shelf, particle board dresser, laminate floor. Temperature in my house is 77 degrees farehnheit which is about 23-24 degrees celsius.
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