ipad for recording hour long video

Whilst an iPad can successfully capture video footage from its built-in camera, a perhaps cheaper and safer alternative for this application might be to consider recording this activity with a cheap GoPro (or similar) action camera - rather than risk an expensive iPad balanced on a tripod.

A GoPro is obviously optimised for video or stills capture, contains a microphone, is small and unobtrusive - and captures video to a microSD card. Dependent upon model, you can then:

• wirelessly transfer your footage to your iPad for editing.
• connect your GoPro to your iPad with USB cable to transfer your footage to your iPad.
• connect an card-reader to your iPad, via USB, to transfer your footage to your iPad.

The iPad will simply require a suitable adapter/dongle to connect the iPad via USB. The iPad remains part of the equation - but isn’t placed at risk. The iPad is the most expensive component of the rig - and needs to be protected. I find it hard to believe that a respectable organisation would insist upon using an iPad for direct video capture.

Ok, then yes, you will want a stand. You can search amazon for those

You will also want to consider having an extension cord to run your ipad off AC power instead of depending on the battery

You can search for a plug in wireless mic (there is where you will probably spend some money, even standard lav mics are 2-300 dollars)

You will probably want to place the ipad relatively close to where you will be so people can see you not you being a tiny dot at the front of the room.

As I said in the other post, buy as large of an ipad as you can afford. Say you have a 32 gig ipad, well the operating system and built in apps will chew up a good 10ish gig of that, not leaving much room for video

Have some practice shots, for example set your rig up and just record an empty room for a set amount of time to see how large the file is.

Be sure to build in file transfer time. A video of any length will be a large file and depending on the upload/download speed it can take a while to transfer the files (it can take me a good 30+ minutes just to download a 3 gig file)

set up your area right with good lighting. Do not let yourself be backlit (you in front of an open window will be you being a black shadow surrounded by glaring white). So practice and experiment.

The more prep work you do can mean the less snafus you experience.

Personally? Invest in a decent video camera. Beyond dealing with memory issues and file transfer issues, the wide angle lens of an ipad will not give you a fantastic result. There’s no zooming, the wide angle lens means you have to be really close to get a decent medium shot, which will probably be rather uncomfortable while you can put a video camera on a tripod at the back of the room, zoom in and get a good shot. As well as an easier time finding a microphone that plugs into the camera vs trying to find one that works for an ipad.

If you really want to use an iPad, buy the largest one you can afford because video takes up space.

The GoPro cannot directly upload video via WeTransfer - but with good lighting, it offers excellent quality video capture. Wide-angle certainly won’t be an issue. When used in “Linear” mode, there’s no fisheye effect at all.

With a fully charged battery, you should get 90 mins record time. You can choose various capture resolutions (e.g., HD, 4K and others).

You’ll still need some kind of computer to upload your video to wherever. An iPad (with the correct adapters) will do the job splendidly - as will other alternatives such as laptop. If money is tight, then perhaps a cheap laptop and a GoPro might, in this instance, be a cheaper option.

You needn’t buy the latest-and-greatest GoPro either. A bare GoPro Hero5 can be purchased “new” for “not a lot” - and easily performs almost as well as the latest Hero7. However, the Hero7 does allow you to add additional GoPro accessories such as a small Shotgun Mic.

I hope this additional information in context of iPad - and possible alternative solutions - proves to be helpful to you.

Gopros are incredibly wide angled. They can shoot almost 180 degrees. (And can look fisheyed if used in too tight of quarters)

I would suggest that you explore the gopro forum (I think they have one) and get some expert advice. They may or may not have a microphone in (probably depends on the model). You’d also need to explore the record time. A lot of that will depend on the memory card you use, obviously a larger card records more.