GoPro 3 black- battery backpack a good idea?

[merxlin]

I barely get a full dive out of a freshly charged battery in my GP3 Black with the LCD screen. I'm thinking of adding the Battery Backpack and eliminating the LCD (I hate to but badly framed images seem better than not being able to get the images in the first place). To anyone who has the battery backpack in place- was it worth it for the extra run time?

 

[crosshairs]

just removing the LCD will give you more run time ..that thing is a battery hog....I have one but no longer use it for that very reason

With a little bit of practice, you will be able to frame stuff just fine without the LCD .

I do have the battery backpack also, and easily get 2 dives out of it

 

[ronscuba]

How much does an extra spare battery cost ? I like using the LCD.

 

[yarik83]

Spare battery costs $50 and it is amazing.

I have 2 backpacks, 2 wasabis and 2 original gopro batteries for my cameras.

On 32gb class 10 micro sd card in 1080 60fps I get 2hrs 16 mins with stock battery and 2.5 hours with wasabi battery.

 

[scallop]

Two wasabi batteries, home charger and plug for car charging $23.99. Can't get much better than that. Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery (2-Pack) and Charger for GoPro HD HERO3 and GoPro AHDBT-201, AHDBT-301: Camera & Photo

 

[merxlin]

Spare battery costs $50 and it is amazing.

I have 2 backpacks, 2 wasabis and 2 original gopro batteries for my cameras.

On 32gb class 10 micro sd card in 1080 60fps I get 2hrs 16 mins with stock battery and 2.5 hours with wasabi battery.

I am assuming the run times are without the LCD screen, but is that with or without the bacpak? What water temp (I typically dive mid 50's). I already run the Wasabi batteries (learned that with my Hero2).

 

[yarik83]

I never had an lcd for my gopros. Realistically it is very difficult to miss a shot with a gopro as long as you point it in same general direction. And all times listed are with backpack. Backpack gives it another hour's worth of battery power.

I routinely go kayaking so for me battery capacity is important. I start off with stock battery + backpack. When those run dry I switch my micro sd cards and use my wasabi+new backpacks.

Between 2 cameras and all batteries I can have them run for around 4.5 hours each.

 

[ronscuba]

I never had an lcd for my gopros. Realistically it is very difficult to miss a shot with a gopro as long as you point it in same general direction....

I agree, but it really depends on what you are shooting and how picky you are about framing.

In the clip below, I wanted my wife to swim next to a very large sponge so the viewer gets a sense of scale/size of the sponge. I'm not sure I would have framed this correctly without the LCD.

I sometimes like to have a diver and the marine life in the frame together. Or have the fish body/head angled a certain way to create depth to the shot. The LCD definitely helps with this, but I also tend to be pretty picky about these kinds of things.

[vimeo]64353126[/vimeo]

 

[mhosts]

What's wrong with using the LCD for only certain scenarios? Having the LCD turned off with even a stock battery can get you a solid 40-60 mins at 1080/60p.

Just swap your battery when you get back on the boat. Also gives good opportunity to clean any dirt/sand/salt residue before going back in!

 

[merxlin]

One other advantage of the LCD is knowing the camera is on and what settings you have. I was shocked when they added the bluetooth capability to the camera they didn't add an LED to the back so you could at least know it was on without having to flip the camera. That was more of an issue when I used to let the camera power off to try and save battery. Now I just leave it on- I think the battery lasts longer that way versus powering up a few times during the dive.