Pad Prompter by OneTakeOnly – Minute Review

by Nino LeitnerJuly 9^th, 2014

First off my apologies for the bad audio quality – a setting in the lav mic wireless kit was wrong and we only discovered afterwards. I keep preaching that audio is just as important as video but we messed it up in this one!!

In this Minute Review, I tested the Pad Prompter from OneTakeOnly (in Europe available via AF Marcotec). It’s a mirror box contraption that allows you to use your iPad as an efficient teleprompter.

In many instances, teleprompters are very helpful – for clients that need to address the audience directly, but often are unable to memorize lines quickly, this is the way to go. Or for minute reviews like this one, which needs to be perfectly timed (and therefore scripted) to fit into exactly one minute. There are many, many applications for a teleprompter and it’s one of these devices that you quickly get used to once you actually start using it.

I think it’s better than all the other iPad prompters that I have seen so far. Unlike many others, it doesn’t put the entire weight of the prompter and iPad onto the lens. It connects to an included rod system and distributes the weight to where it should be, the tripod head.

You need to add a teleprompter app for the iPad, and there are a lot of them out there to choose from. I recommend Teleprompt+ (click here to buy in iTunes), which in my opinion is the most advanced iPad teleprompter app that I know. It can also be controlled via the iPhone (iTunes link), so an assistant can adjust the speed of the text during the recording.

The Pad Prompter (European order link here) also packs up into next to nothing, and it actually looks like a MacBook in a sleeve when it’s all put together.

I would definitely recommend to get the rod version (there is also a slightly cheaper one that only works on a light stand) as it’s much more versatile during a shoot.