camera with long life battery?

[nez]

I have had a Gopro Hero4 for some years and the only thing wrong with it is the battery... but what a fault. In terms of battery life it is hopeless. Can anyone suggest a forward facing and preferably cheap action camera with a really long battery life? Brand doesn't matter to me - it could be made by Okey Kokey Shotun for all I care. It just needs to keep rolling. Thanks

[gazza_d]

Drift Ghost range.
Ghost XL is £150, 1080p and has a 9 hour battery life.
Designed as a helmet cam too so a lot sleeker and discrete than something with a GoPro form factor.
I have a Ghost X and it's spot on

[nez]

Thanks Gazza. Will one of those clip on to the bike somewhere? It looks like it's designed for helmets whereas I don't always use a helmet

[[XAP]Bob]

I use a USB powered dash cam, powered from a dynamo setup... That gets pretty good battery life...

[gazza_d]

Thanks Gazza. Will one of those clip on to the bike somewhere? It looks like it's designed for helmets whereas I don't always use a helmet

I never wear a helmet so fitted to bike.
I stuck the mount onto a bit of flat plastic sheet cable tied to the bars and stem. That's good as you can use the qr mount.
I've since progressed to using a generic alloy GoPro bar mount and tripod adaptor as the drift has a tripod socket in the base

[reohn2]

Thanks Gazza. Will one of those clip on to the bike somewhere? It looks like it's designed for helmets whereas I don't always use a helmet

I'd read the reviews before buying a Drift Ghost.

[nez]

Thanks Gazza. Will one of those clip on to the bike somewhere? It looks like it's designed for helmets whereas I don't always use a helmet

I'd read the reviews before buying a Drift Ghost.

Thanks. They’re all a bit up and down. Anything specific?

[reohn2]

Thanks Gazza. Will one of those clip on to the bike somewhere? It looks like it's designed for helmets whereas I don't always use a helmet

I'd read the reviews before buying a Drift Ghost.

Thanks. They’re all a bit up and down. Anything specific?

Reading through the negative reviews it seems the after sales support is pretty bad if you have problems,and there seems to be quite a few people who have had problems.

[Pebble]

I have an SJ4000 which is essentially a poor mans goPro. I have this tethered to an external 10A battery and it is good for 20 hours, not that I ever ride 20hrs in one go but it does mean I only have to charge it up once a week

[gregoryoftours]

Battery life tends to vary drastically according to the settings you're using, so if you don't need it to look really nice you can run it at the lowest recording resolution/framerate with image stabilisation etc turned off and it should give you way longer on a single charge.

[rmurphy195]

When I bought my bikecam battery life was obviously going to be an issue for those cams where the battery was built in.

I'm not sure what the modern versions do, but my Garmin Virb has a removable battery, so I keep a spare. between them I get about 5 hours or so on the high-quality image setting, depending on how cold it is out there.

If I wanted more, then carrying an extra spare battery would reliably give me up to 8 hours.

Camera - and batteries - are about 5 years old, I used to get almost 3 hours from a charge.

The "cost" of course is in the weight of the camera with its (probably) physically bigger battery and the battery compartment.

The camera could also take power from an external power pack - which would be bigger and heavier than either the spare battery I carry on longer rides, or the camera itself.

[nez]

Thanks for these replies. Apple mail has been quietly putting them in the junk. God knows what apple has against Cycle uk - perhaps they’re CTC diehards!

[RickH]

Thanks for these replies. Apple mail has been quietly putting them in the junk. God knows what apple has against Cycle uk - perhaps they’re CTC diehards!

It is a technical issue basically because the from address is Cycling UK but the server sending it isn't. With Gmail I, & others, needed to set up a filter that stopped them going in junk/spam.

See this post & surrounding discussion for more info.

[nez]

Thanks for these replies. Apple mail has been quietly putting them in the junk. God knows what apple has against Cycle uk - perhaps they’re CTC diehards!

It is a technical issue basically because the from address is Cycling UK but the server sending it isn't. With Gmail I, & others, needed to set up a filter that stopped them going in junk/spam.

See this post & surrounding discussion for more info.

Thanks Rick - very helpful.