I am looking to build a 680mm x8 copter and need a bit of insight

i currently have a cheap dji flamewheel 1000kv motors with 1045 props and a cheap kk blackboard 2.5 flight controller couldnt get the thing tuned in so i decided to build a H4 680mm alien with the same motors but i would like to do x8 configuration i have not purchased the ardu 2.8 or frame or extra props and motors. i plan to do aerial photography with my own camera it will have a gimbal and camera as well the frame is capable of up to 15" but im not sure if the 1045’s i have can be used or should i get larger motors/props etc… my guess is that 8 1045’s would do just fine but will have fpv camera and camera with gimbal so it can be used by 2 people one on laptop/android controlling the gimbal and me controlling quad with my controller and a 5.8ghz camera with screen i would like to setup for 45 minute flight not sure how many batteries would be needed in parallel either. eventually later on i would like to addon raspberry pi with 3g but thats much later on. if anyone has any insight towards this project or an x8 similar i guess frame is irrelivalt its the setting up or apm 2.8 with telemetry and configuring x8 with apm before i go an purchase the wrong parts

45 minutes is hard to do with a quad, harder to do with a x8. The more motors and props you put on, the more battery power is used up in heat and losses. I got a quadrotor that flies for 35 minutes, but it has 630kV motors with 15 x 5.5 T-props and takeoff weight of 3,000 grams. It carries dual two-axis gimbals and cameras, plus FPV.

If you want to get closer to 30 minutes you’re going to have leave the 1000kV motors on the bench and get something slower turning, with bigger props.

The APM2.8 is quite easy to set up and is the controller I use in my 600mm quadrotor mentioned above. If you spend a few days studying the docs on it, and watch Painless360’s video series on APM at the link below, you won’t have any problems with it. There is 8 videos, starting with this one, and probably is the most thorough tutorial available: