Even with the beefed up battery of GoPro's Hero3+, there's always the possibility of the camera cutting out right as the action heats up. Living out this scenario on the powder-coated ski hills of California led the team at Polar Pro to explore ways of not just extending battery life, but doing so without interruption. The result is the PowerPole, an extendable pole-mount with around five GoPro batteries worth of juice packed inside.
Constructed from aluminum-alloy with a 17 to 30 inch (43 to 76 cm) extendable range, the PowerPole is a perfectly capable GoPro pole mount, a handy tool for capturing all that snow-shredding, wave-crashing action with your awestruck mug in between. This experience could always be prolonged by throwing extra battery packs in your bag, but this of course means interrupting your filming to swap them in and out.
The PowerPole promises eight hours of continuous filming through its buit-in 5,400 mAh battery. For some context, the Hero3+ runs on a 1,180 mAh battery, while the older Hero 3 Black is powered by a 1,050 mAh battery. The PowerPole keeps your GoPro running via a cable plugged into one of the two standard USB ports at the top, with a spare to charge other devices if you're multi-tasking. While not waterproof, the PowerPole does feature rubber splash guards to provide some protection of its ports from water damage and dirt.
With the Kickstarter campaign for the PowerPole set to wrap up in the next 48 hours, Polar Pro has raised more than US$33,000, surpassing its initial goal of $25,000. Pledges of $119 are still available and will have a PowerPole sent your way in October assuming everything else goes to plan. If you like your backup batteries with a little more bling, then there's always the 24-carat gold version for a pledge of $4,999.
Source: Polar Pro
