Why is my GoPro battery life so incredibly bad?
 

I took my new Hero 3 to an autox for the first time this weekend and my mind was completely at how fast the battery was dead. We got 6 runs, but as I was staging for my 3rd my phone beeped and the GoPro was dead. I'm not sure what I should be doing, but here's what I did. Hopefully someone can tell me how to get a full day's worth of runs in.

- The camera was mounted to the tow hook on the front of my car in the waterproof case
- Turned it on and connected via wifi from my phone, preview OFF
- Shortly before staging for a run I would start recording
- After parking I'd stop recording

... and that's it. I ended up with about 10 minutes of 1080p video and a dead battery on my brand new camera. I ordered another battery and a charger but honestly, if that's all I can get this camera is pretty worthless to me. There's GOT to be a way to get WAY better battery life..?

I took 13 minutes of video yesterday at 1080p on my Motorsport model and still had full bars. I will say that I have found leaving it on but not recording also significantly drains the battery. At the last autocross I left it on while I was working and during the lunch break and it died a few runs before the end in the afternoon. That said, yesterday I left it on between runs (not recording but on) and had no battery issues then I turned it off while it was not my heat.

Yeesh. I guess powering it off is the way to go. I'll need to get some kind of phone mount in my car so I can do all this easier while staging.

Do they have car chargers (oem or aftermarket) for the GoPros cause that's what I'd get to make sure the battery will last when I need it.

I have one but I'm not going to charge it for 3 minutes between runs, and apparently that's what I'd need to do. I'll turn it off when I'm not using it but I'm pretty disappointed. :\

Gopro3s have been having shitty battery life reviews. :/

Same goes with the Black Edition.

Best bet OP is to buy more batteries.