I wondered about the whole data thing... you can't just use a smartphone as a pocket-sized mini wifi tablet? I've got a bunch of old pocket digital cameras, but am not too impressed with the video on them, and they only take 2GB SD cards, which cost a fortune nowadays compared with the higher capacity ones. They are also a bit clunky by today's standards. I was thinking a smartphone with a bunch of onboard memory would be nicer, more portable, and make better video.... if it could work without any obligations attached, of course.
bratsche
nother option instead of a smartphone with an external mic, or a GoPro with an external mic, might be the ZoomQ2n, which came out last December 2016, and has been getting great reviews, and has the legendary Zoom mic system built-in with a nince 1080p HD video camera.
I am greatly fatigued by all the cable-wrangling etc when using my iPad to record videos for the UU seasons and was looking for a dedicated camera with great audio, and Zoom claims that this camera was 'made for musicians'...
B&H and Sweetwater had it listed for $169 last time I looked, and aside from recording to an internal/removable microSD card, it can also record to the computer/iOS device via USB.
Here is the link to the product on Zoom's web site:
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/video-recording/zoom-q2n-handy-video-recorder
As you scroll down the page, you will see MANY close-up photos and a handful of video demos, and there are many more on Youtube if you search 'Zoom Q2n'.
I would have bought one of these already if I had enough disposable cash saved up over the past year, but it's been a bit tight money-wise and saving up that much at once, has not been possible yet.
The main benefit of using one of these things is that there is no worry about 'which' USB mic to add to your smartphone or tablet, because all of that is taken out of the equation - this is a hand-sized (about the size of a softball) all-in-one hi-fi hi-res video camera with removable batteries and removable storage cards, and easy to bring your recordings into the computer for anything you want to do with them after recording, like editing, etc, or putting on YouTube, or emailing to family, etc.
Using something like this would be MUCH simpler than wading thru the nearly thousand choices of video camera apps and external microphones for an iOS or Android device, as well as be MUCH cheaper, and would last a lot longer before becoming obsolete.
The obsolescence manifests as Apple devices no longer get security updates after about 2 yrs, and using them without updates puts you at great risk for your data to be exfiltrated or your phone to be hijacked be nefarious programs/web-sites.
Android devices are also often abandoned, and subject to the same risks, but the 'useful' lifespan of each device (as per it's maker) is defined by and based upon either the phone maker's private deprecation schedule and/or your wireless carrier which often both lag behind as well as orphan devices prematurely.
Both of these issues reduce the overall function of anything that connects to the internet. Why does a CAMERA have to connect to the internet????? It should not HAVE TO.
The Zoom Q2n and GoPro 'Music' models do NOT need internet nor special apps to work.
It may be in your best interest to take a look at something that does
not ALSO function as a phone or wi-fi device.
This advice is coming from my 35 yrs experience working as an IT professional and seeing the internet, and anything attached to it get exploited by those with malicious intent, at every possible attack vector. I'd say to minimize the potential for exposure to such risks and maybe look at something that it's primary function is to be a hi-fi and hi-res
video camera and nothing else.