[OttaCee]

Looking for suggestions for external battery capacity for a GoPro Hero 7 (Black). Requirements for 4 hours of continuous recording time.

GoPro will be mounted on a chest mount so looking for either ideas:
- Add-on battery pack/case that sits around the GoPro (Waspi Power, DigiPower Refuel, etc)
- Traditional external battery pack but must be mounted on my chest mount

If I need 4 hours of recording, how much battery (aH) would be required if filming at 4K superview, 24fs, hypersmooth?

 

[OttaCee]

UPDATE - Created my solution

After researching on the GoPro technical page, lots of mixed results on having their GoPro powered by external batteries. But one constant feeback was - Anker makes a good battery pack with constant 2.1A output.

Purchased Anker PowerCore 13000
Use the GoPro supplied USB cable
Remove the internal GoPro battery

How to mount? I could not use my nice GoPro chest mount, no place to secure the battery pack. Ended up using a cheap chest mount with the two holes on the bottom of the chest mount. Wrapped the Anker in a breathable pouch, then used Velcro straps to secure the battery to the chest mount.

Does it work on the trail? YES - Now my 3rd ride with this setup, can easily record 2 hours non-stop. Even did a 12 mile race-case simulation to see if I could feel the extra 1lb hanging off the chest mount and would survive the high speed tech trails.

Few notes - Once you plug in the USB from the external battery into the GoPro, need to press record right away. And if you stop your recording, it will not repower the GoPro to start recording again. Have to remove the USB cable, reinsert and press record.

In the next month, have two 3hr+ XC races that I will be testing this setup on.

 

[OttaCee]

POST RACE UPDATE - Everything worked for about 2 hours

Setup worked great, recorded approx 2:15 of good stable video till the GoPro started to overheat. Turned it off for about 15 minutes then came back on and worked great the remaining 20mins of the race.

Comfort was a bit mixed. Once the trail was very rooty, rough you could feel the weight of the battery bouncing against my body at high speeds. But overall it would not prevent me from running this, maybe add extra padding.

Good - Battery worked perfect, no dropped power during the race.

If interested, here's the result of the race day video

 

[JDHutch]

How long can you record with the standard battery?

Wondering if it would easier to just turn the camera off for parts of the race.

 

[OttaCee]

How long can you record with the standard battery?

Wondering if it would easier to just turn the camera off for parts of the race.

About 45mins total.
Not easier to turn on/off when your riding at race pace, better to turn on an leave it.