Miller has announced its new ArtX Naked series of cinematic fluid heads. They have been designed to not only be stable but also versatile. They have the ability to attach to industry-standard third-party accessories.
The ArtX Naked series is claimed to deliver the smoothness and robustness of the larger cinematic fluid heads in a relatively small and inexpensive package.
The ArtX Naked series comprises of:
- ArtX3 payload capacity of 8kg / 17.6lbs
- ArtX5 payload capacity of 10kg / 22lbs
- ArtX payload capacity of 14kg (31lbs)
All three models feature 16 positions of counterbalance with CB PLUSTM. The ArtX3 and 5 have 3+0 selectable pan and tilt fluid drag positions while ArtX7 has 5+0.
ArtX Naked fluid heads come as a core head enabling the user to choose and fit the sliding platform, pan handle, and mounting base, as well as choice from an array of other accessories. They don’t come with a sliding platform, camera plate, pan handle or clawball. Basically, the Naked series has been designed so that the user chooses the options they need.
Miller has created four Starter kits containing a sliding platform, a handle and a clawball, although users may purchase the individual options separately. The kits are the sum cost of the components so you don’t save any money over buying the components separately.
Flat Base
The ArtX Naked series all feature a flat base that can be mounted directly onto a multitude of sliders. They can, however, also be fitted with a 75mm, 100mm and 150mm or a Mitchell base adaptor to utilize any tripod.
This is quite clever because you can use the ArtX Naked fluid heads on basically any tripod base you like as long as you have the right base adapter. This means you can swap your head around between say a 75mm and 100mm bowl set of tripod legs depending on what type of camera and configuration you are running.
Two different sliding platforms
Miller offers two different sliding platforms as options. These options are the Versa and the Miller. The Versa (short for Versatile) sliding platform has a sliding range of 105mm / 4.13” and is reversible. Other third-party compatible camera plates may be used, in which case the sliding range will be less and they may not be reversible.
The Versa camera plate is colored burnt orange to identify it from the Miller camera plate.
The Miller sliding platform, as opposed to Versa, employs the Standard Miller camera plate as used on Air, DS, and CX heads, with a sliding range of 60mm / 2.36”.
Miller makes a large array of pan handles that can be used on the ArtX.
Two Mounting Points
All three heads have two mounting points. This is where the accessory mounting block attaches to. These mounting points enable magic arms to be fitted via 3/8” and 1⁄4” threads. There is also an accessory mounting block that interfaces to ARRI fittings via an ARRI standard attachment adaptor.
Competition
Direct ompetition comes in the form of the Sachtler aktiv10, aktiv8, and aktiv6.
Price & Availability
The Miller ArtX Naked series will be available in December. I don’t have any further information at this stage. I am attempting to find out pricing and will update this post once I find out more.
The set of fluid heads in this three-option series are all backed by a three-year warranty.
