GoPro Time Management - Battery/SD

What's up, NCKA?

I'm curious how you guys manage your GoPro battery and SD card usage on the water. Since I can't get out quite as often as I'd like, I usually try to milk each trip for at least 6-8 hours on the water. Accounting for pedal time out to the fishing grounds and back, time to rest my legs, eat lunch, etc, I figure I'm fishing for about 5-7 hours. Now I'm trying to put together a strategy for getting the best possible footage with the least amount of hassle on the water.   

I've got a Hero 4 Silver, with the following specs listed by GoPro:

*1:55 worth of continuous footage from one battery at 720p 120 fps. (I'm going to assume 1:30 just to be conservative)
*4:22 worth of footage from one 64GB SD card. I only have the single 64GB card, and can't justify another $100 for a new or higher capacity card at this time.   

The way I see it, there are two extremes and a whole spectrum of options in between...

1) Run the camera full time. For my longer days, this would mean AT LEAST four battery change outs and one SD card change out. Battery change outs should be easy enough on the water, but I'd rather avoid messing with a teeny tiny SD card.

2) Leave the camera off (but in "one button mode"), and manually start and stop filming when I hook a fish, see something interesting, etc... I could potentially go all day on one battery and one SD card, BUT, I would stand a good chance of missing key moments (whale breaching right off the bow, ferocious salmon takedown, etc).

So how do you guys manage your GoPro run time?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

~Alex

I could only guess changing batteries multiple times you have just as much chance of missing a whale breach or something during the change as you would when it's off and you are setting up gear or not facing a direction to get any good video anyways. 

I like the one button on record mode with beeps for diving because I don't have to look to see if it is on.

I haven't set it up for my kayak so will be interesting to see what others think. 

Get a Hero1 and a battery backpack and run it for six hours straight. 

Thanks, DG. I've got my camera mounted on a Panfish pole behind my shoulder, so it's easy to access. The pole is attached with a Scotty Gear Head, so I can easily remove it if I need to mess with settings or change a battery.

I'm a little worried about taking the camera out of its housing while I'm on the water, but I think it'd be manageable. I'd have to keep a dry towel handy to dry off the housing, my hands, etc.

Get a Hero1 and a battery backpack and run it for six hours straight. 

Thanks, but I'm working with what I've got. (Recently dropped all my "fun money" on a smoker).

One button mode and a remote is my technique. You can quickly begin filming as soon as you hook up, launch/land, or see something interesting. The draw back is that it does take a few seconds to get going, so you miss the strike and other spontaneous moments such as a whale or whatever; but you have batteries all day long.  It also nullifies the time consuming task of sifting through hours of eventless footage looking for a 5 minuet action sequence. This task can get mind-numbingly tedious. 

Thanks, Matt.

Let me see if I understand what you're saying... Sounds like you're leaving your camera powered off, but paired with the wifi remote. Then when you want to start recording you would just press the shutter button on the remote one time to turn the camera on and start rolling.

Do you notice much battery drain while the camera "off" but still paired with the remote via wifi?

I was going to go with wifi mode with remote as well. I was interested in how long it lasts in wifi mode.

Thanks, Matt.

Let me see if I understand what you're saying... Sounds like you're leaving your camera powered off, but paired with the wifi remote. Then when you want to start recording you would just press the shutter button on the remote one time to turn the camera on and start rolling.

Do you notice much battery drain while the camera "off" but still paired with the remote via wifi?

.

I was going to go with wifi mode with remote as well. I was interested in how long it lasts in wifi mode.

Exactly. The camera stays off, so the battery life is nearly indefinite during off cycles. The remote does stay on and has a finite lifespan of maybe of 6 or so hours.  Long enough for most of my sessions. With the remote on a lanyard around my neck, I can hit one single button and drop the remote.  The camera will start rolling about 3 or 4 seconds later. The remote will even beep to confirm command entry.

Good stuff. That's probably how I'll end up doing things for now.

I posted this same question over on Northwest Kayak Anglers and someone posted a link to the Limefuel Epic extended batteries. I guess they are still in the Kickstarter stage, but it seems like you can pledge and order them. Could be just the solution we're all looking for...

http://www.limefuel.com/pages/product-epic

Supposedly those batteries help, but not a huge amount.

Interesting... I'll have to watch that review later (when I'm not at work!).

Supposedly those batteries help, but not a huge amount.

Just watched the review. Were you being sarcastic? Sounded to me like the reviewer felt the battery worked as advertised.

Yeah, I was wondering that too. From what I can tell, the 5500 MAH battery lasts 7.75 hours of video time @ 1080p / 30FPS on a Gopro Hero 3+. That's advertised though, is it a lot different?

I watched a similar video some time ago and though this was the same video about the same battery,  but apparently I was wrong. I just watched this video for the first time they do sound impressive.  Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the link. Now I want one too