I’ve been trying out both my GoPro 3 Silver and Black editions to get an idea of the running times using some of the available accessories.
As it turns out the times reported by GoPro are pretty bang on under ideal conditions. Using alternative batteries does increase the output times by a little.
Please note there are a variety of conditions that can affect run times, such as:
Cold weather, which will reduce battery-life.
Enabling Wi-Fi, which will reduce battery-life
The above times are based on doing a continuous record. Stopping/starting recording, or powering camera on/off repeatedly will reduce the total record time.
I’ve switched off all three LEDs and the sound on my Black edition to save a little battery power.
When out on a river, would you say it’s better to turn it off when you’ve finished filming, and turn it on again for the next filming segment, or leave it on and just start recording again?
I tend to just stop filming. I have the camera set to to go into standby after 5 mins of no filming. I’d recommend getting hold of a wifi remote if the paddling is long and you are switching on and off on a regular basis. It’s pretty easy to forget if you switched it off or on the last time you used it. I’ve missed some epic footage opportunities doing this.
On the Black Edition it will go into an automatic sleep mode after 5 mins of not being used. Note that in appearance it still looks as though the camera is turned on. But if you press record you will find an ever so slightly small delay as it wakes up and starts recording.
I have tested it, and you can get around 5-6hrs of standby time by letting the camera do this.
Do you mean the sleep settings in the menu, or a separate setting? So it still displays the recording information on the mini LCD screen?
That’s it. It still looks switch on but will in fact be asleep hence it taking a split second to kick in when asked to record.
No. It can’t be set currently. The camera does it by default. If you leave it for five minutes without touching it it will go into a sleep mode. But as mentioned in my original post if you look at the camera it will still look as though it is turned on when it is in this mode because the front LCD will still show the settings etc. However if you press record you will notice a slight delay as the camera “wakes up”. You don’t have to set anything in a menu, the camera will just do it after five mins automatically.
Thanks for the advice, I have the black edition, so I use the WiFi remote almost all the time. I just find that it runs out really quickly, and the battery indicator is not the best, jumps around a lot
Have you tried a wasabi battery or given your oem battery a little tlc.
I have two Wasabi batteries that I keep in a dry pouch in my BA, changing the batteries can be a bit of hassle on the side of a river, especially if time is an issue. How would you suggest I improve my OEM battery? I think I just need to optimise my recordings, without recording the whole river, just comes down to making sure I capture the good bits!
There are a few regimes you can follow to keep a battery in tip top condition. Loads of info on the net. I may do a short write up at some point.
I tend to record in 1080p @ 60fps, so I get some decent slow motion, however this obviously has an impact on battery life
Thanks for your advice, I’ll have a look 🙂