The GoPro Battery Bacpac

One of the first accessories that I bought for my GoPro was this battery bacpac. I took my GoPro out right away and noticed that the batteries don’t last that long. I thought that the bacpac was a quick solution to that problem. This does more than double the life of the battery that came with my original Hero 3. It does increase the size and weight as well which is still not that bad. The time that you would really need this bacpac though is when you are using the bacpac screen. The bad thing is though that you have to choose one or the other. When I really need one long life out of the battery I will use the bacpac. If I only have one housing for the day, and I know I will need multiple batteries I will not use it. This is because I need to carry two housings. One for when the bacpac is on, and one for when I take it off. I will need to take it off because once the battery bacpac goes dead it will start taking a charge from the main battery to charge itself. This was a problem for me early on when I did not know what was going on.

A GoPro Battery Bacpac Charging Tip

You can charge this bacpac with the port on the side which you can connect to a power device using the USB cable provided when you purchase it. You can also charge it via a method called pass through charging where you just connect your GoPro to a power source and it will charge both units. This method charges the GoPro battery first, and then the bacpac. A more convenient way would have been through the bacpac first as there is an open slot in the housing for this, but it just does not work. You still can charge both units separately as well to save a little time.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• More than doubles your battery life
• Slim clip on design
• Battery indicator on the bacpac itself as well as on the GoPro screen

Cons

• Increase in size and weight
• Cost
• Pass through charge can take battery life from main battery
• Same three bar battery warning system as on the GoPro. Hard to tell just how long you have left

Final Verdict

If you need about 2 1/2-3 hours of one charge on your GoPro then I would buy this bacpac and one of the newer batteries. You could probably push 3 hours depending on what mode you are in. At it’s $50 price tag though you could buy a few Wasabi batteries to keep your GoPro going. If you are just a casual GoPro user I would say to stay away from this. If you shoot in the window described above then this might be for you.