Battery Life on Go Pro 3

[yarik83]

And results are in

2.2 hours
720 60fps
1606 photos
leaving about 7.2gb on card


2.5 hours
1080 30fps
1791 photos
leaving about 5.2 gb on card

Now that I think about it it makes almost no difference between video only mode and video+photo mode.

 

[divingpyrate]

could you post one of the stills or comment on quality

 

[yarik83]

Ohh do I have some stills for you sir. I just came back from a 6 hour kayak trip and everything hurts. Here are some shots:


I have like 40gigs of video footage and about 7 gigs worth of photos. It shoots combo footage at 2 settings. 12mp and 8mp. 12 I think only works with 1440 resolution since I use 1080 it uses 8mp imagery. Without flash in very very variable terrain with sun in and out and shade and sun and glare... out of 7 gigs of photos I have about 6 gigs that came out spectacular. Perfect clarity. I provided you some variable distance shots to give you an idea of what is going on.

Is this setting worth it? This is a double edged sword really. Let me explain why. 2.6 hours of footage (consider it a 2 tank dive trip) fits on 1 32gb micro sd card with about 9gb left to spare. That means you can not really take that card for another 2 tank dive day unless you selectively shoot stuff. If you are an air hog and your bottom time is less than 1hr then I guess you could probably squeeze 4 dives into this 1 card. On the other hand you know those amazing 1 week long trips when you run out of sd cards (after packing like 65 for the trip). This is a perfect example of having that extra 9 gigs per card to do timelapse or whatever on land footage.

Having said that I would give this option a B+ and a respectable woot woot horray. I honestly do not have time to sift through 7 gigs of photos but for something like a digital picture frame or windows 7 moving desktop background this would be awesome. To top it off somewhere buried deep in the photo library there will be one heck of a photo which you can use as a post card or something.

How is this different from timelapse? In my experience timelapse gives about 4.5 hours of battery life shooting 1 photo every 60 seconds. Timelapse, however has variable time settings (1 photo /0.5 sec-1photo /60 sec) whereas video+photo really has far less options to pick from (fastest is 1 photo/5 sec)

Edit: looks like forum thing shrunk photos grrr.

 

[flareside]

Gopro has now posted battery life charts in the specs section of each of the camera models on their website.

Ref: HERO3 Black Edition | Wi-Fi enabled | Most Advanced HD GoPro Ever

 

[RedStang]

Gopro has now posted battery life charts in the specs section of each of the camera models on their website.

Ref: HERO3 Black Edition | Wi-Fi enabled | Most Advanced HD GoPro Ever

View attachment 147191

Doesn't protune reduce battery life as well? Thought I read that somewhere and am curious by how much. I do wish they would have kept it a little larger and increased the battery size though I'm not sure how much they could get. I'm used to 2 hours or more in my previous cameras so this is a significant adjustment for me. Won't be so bad once my Wasabi batteries and charger come in. And at least the stock battery charges fairly quick!

 

[flareside]

Doesn't protune reduce battery life as well? Thought I read that somewhere and am curious by how much. I do wish they would have kept it a little larger and increased the battery size though I'm not sure how much they could get. I'm used to 2 hours or more in my previous cameras so this is a significant adjustment for me. Won't be so bad once my Wasabi batteries and charger come in. And at least the stock battery charges fairly quick!

Yeah, it says it on the last line of the chart, "3. Using protune mode will increase power consumption. May vary per mode and camera edition" but I can't say how much as I haven't done any comparative testing. I did notice I get 5 to 10 minutes less time than stated in the charts even though I let the charging run considerably past the red light going out. And comparing between the charts, the white edition can get upwards of 3 hours with the silver getting up to 2:15 depending on the mode.

 

[toozler]

Ohh do I have some stills for you sir. I just came back from a 6 hour kayak trip and everything hurts. Here are some shots:
View attachment 146984View attachment 146985View attachment 146986View attachment 146987View attachment 146988

Loxahatchee River? There are some chunky gators there that like to bump into your kayak from underneath, hope you haven't met those.

 

[RedStang]

Yeah, it says it on the last line of the chart, "3. Using protune mode will increase power consumption. May vary per mode and camera edition" but I can't say how much as I haven't done any comparative testing. I did notice I get 5 to 10 minutes less time than stated in the charts even though I let the charging run considerably past the red light going out. And comparing between the charts, the white edition can get upwards of 3 hours with the silver getting up to 2:15 depending on the mode.

Wow, can't believe I missed that lol! Thanks. I had considered getting the silver and I'm sure I would have been thrilled with it. But, I'm also a buy once cry once kind of guy as well. My other HD camcorder is over 6 years old and still works fine. If I would have bought the silver I think I may have been more inclined to upgrade sooner. The features of the black are enough to offset the low battery life IMO.

 

[yarik83]

Nope this was taken at Alafia River between Alderman Ford and Lithia Springs. This weekend I have clocked nearly 16 miles (12 downstream and 4 upstream). At this point I named my clips and will start sorting through them. Hope to load stuff to my youtube account in next couple of weeks.

Also going to Weeki Wachee this upcoming saturday where I will be kayaking in the morning and diving in the afternoon. woooohooo.

 

[Dor1813]

Hi

Will someone advise, as I am wondering which batteries I should order for Hero 3 as there are so many choices of different pricing:

wasabi batteries go pro | eBay

Thanks.