2024 Broad Creek Waterway Tour
Went to check out Broad Creek in Deltaville VA by water this weekend. Was probably the first time I’ve been there by water in almost 25 years. Here’s what it looked like by water in 360 view.
Tag: insta360
2024 Battle Rhythm Delivery from Irvington to Deltaville
On Saturday, I helped Todd deliver his J99 Battle Rhythm from its winter home in Irvington VA to Deltaville for the summer sailing and racing season. Ann was along as well and we had a nice motor down the Rappahannock River and did some sailing when we reached the Chesapeake Bay in the lightish winds.
2024 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #1
As was the case in 2022, the club was short a PRO for the first spring series of the year and so I stepped in last minute to be the PRO. We had a small but mighty team and gave the racers the best we could given the weather, volunteers and equipment we had available.
While it wasn’t windy by windy standards- the conditions were still cool, the wind was up and the waves were a bit lumpy from this direction. We were able to set up a 1.5nm weather leg and ran two races for both fleets on that course. The cruising class intended to do a triangle derivative of this, but through some miscommunication to the RC, we sent them on a triangle that was way beyond what they were intending and weren’t finishing even the first lap of that until almost after the other fleets had done two laps and started their next race.
Thanks to Paula, Cathy, Mary and Paul for their help on RC.
This was also my first chance to try out a new insta360 X4 and here’s the 360 video in 8k of driving the boat out of the Jackson Creek Channel.
VIDEO | PICTURES | RESULTS | EVENT WEBSITE
2024 FBYC Opening Day Race
This weekend the Battle Rhythm crew joined the Race Committee for the Opening Day race. The 3 fleets did a middle distance race out into the Chesapeake Bay and back. The wind was light and took about 3 hours to do the ~15nm. We had a 4-6 knot breeze in the Piankatank the entire time. The boats out in the bay saw much less than that at times and many of them abandoned when the current started taking them faster than the wind.
Being on Race Committee this was a perfect opportunity to get some video of the boats and try out a borrowed 360 camera.
Insta360 Ace Pro Battery Life Test
For this sailing season I wanted to add another modern action camera to my arsenal. In reviewing all of the cameras out there – the battery life left some to be desired in the cameras on the market with the best features. While the image quality, usability, mounting, and other features are important to me, none of that really matters if the camera has run out of battery. On a sailboat, oftentimes I can’t easily swap out a battery – either because when we’re on a big boat I’ve got a job to do in the middle of a race and can’t easily get away to get a new battery and swap it into the camera, or on a small boat – I simply don’t have any space to take a spare battery or even keep it dry.
Reviewing all of the specs and reviews online I settled on the Insta360 Ace Pro (buy on Amazon). On paper it got 10 minutes more battery life (100 minutes) compared to the latest GoPro Hero 12 (90 minutes). But the Insta360 Ace Pro hadn’t been on the market very long and none of the reviews really mentioned the battery life other than in passing. I bought the camera and still wanted to settle the question – how long can I expect the battery to last? I had also seen some after-market batteries becoming available and wondered how those compared to the Insta360 batteries.
So I set up some tests for 14 different batteries from 7 different retailers for over 268 hours to answer those questions and I wanted to share my findings.
How Long Does the Insta360 Ace Pro Battery Last?
On average across all of the batteries tested, the camera filmed for 97.7 minutes – just shy of the 100 minutes advertised. In only 29% of the tests did the camera film for more than 100 minutes. The Insta360 batteries average 92.2 minutes and hit the 100 minute mark just 15% of the time. While the other 6 brands of batteries tested average 98.8 minutes and hit 100 minutes 33% of the time.
Which Battery Lasted the Longest?
There were 2 batteries of the 7 brands tested that hit the 100 minute mark significantly more than the other batteries test. While that looks like a big difference on paper, the real difference is only around 4 minutes of film time. The NBZZ and REYTRIC batteries lasted much longer than any of the other batteries tested by 4-6 minutes.
Here’s the average runtime for the different brands:
And here you can see the individual performance of each of the batteries. Note the range between the minimum and maximum tests along wit the average. The Insta360 batteries are on the far right and far left.
The Batteries
- REYTRIC Upgraded 2-Pack Batteries with 3-Channel USB Charger
- NBZZ 2 Batteries Pack with Dual Fast Charge Hub
- Topwowe 2 Packs Batteries with Dual Fast Charge Hub
- Insta360 Ace/Ace Pro Battery
- Burflo Battery
- DONGNI 2 Pack Ace Pro Battery
- Rszfnjxry Batteries(2 Pack) with Fast Charge Hub
How did I test?
Using the settings I’d most likely be using for sailing – 4k 30 fps with horizon leveling and HDR on – I set the camera up in my living room to look at my backyard until it ran out of battery. I did this at least 11 times for each battery to get the data. All of the batteries were charged using the same 3-battery charger and the Ace Pro firmware was 1.0.27.
To see my videos created with the Insta360 Ace Pro – check out No Quarter Sailing on YouTube.
Disclaimers: I purchased the camera and some of the batteries myself. Other batteries were received through the Amazon Vine Voices Program. As an affiliate in Amazon’s program I may receive a commission for product links.
Insta360 Ace Pro
I recently got a new action camera to upgrade my capabilities with better features and image quality with the latest tech – the Insta360 Ace Pro. This camera has a lot better audio than what I’ve had in my other cameras. It’s got better video quality and features like HDR and horizon leveling that I’ve never had before in an action camera. So far I’ve used it once at ILCA Midwinters and I’m looking forward to using it more once the sailing season gets underway.
