Tilta Hydra Arm Mini – First Look

by Francesco AndreolaDecember 15^th, 2022

We took a closer look at the Tilta Hydra Arm Mini, a portable car-mounted cinema camera crane system that promises to simplify high-end car-based cinematography, while also making it more affordable.

The Tilta Hydra Arm Mini was first introduced in June this year. This compact camera crane system looks like an attempt to democratize vehicle-based cinematography. Indeed, its $10,000 price tag makes it much more accessible than similar solutions in its class.

Recently, my colleague Graham had the chance to see the Tilta Hydra Arm Mini in action at Irwindale Speedway motorsport facility in California. On the track, he learned more about the system directly from Nick from Tilta. Let’s see what he found out!

Tilta Hydra Arm Mini: compact camera crane for lightweight gimbals

To start off, the Tilta Hydra Arm Mini can be mounted on the roof of any car that can support its weight, which is around 70kg/154lbs (not including the gimbal and camera package). This makes it appealing for small companies or even single operators that can’t afford buying a specific vehicle model for this kind of productions.

Another advantage of this crane is that it doesn’t require an army to setup. Indeed, according to Nick, two experienced crew members could suffice to have the Hydra Arm Mini up and running in a about 1 hour.

The arm attaches to the roof of the vehicle via a 4 suction cup mounting system, measures 3.87m/12.6” in length, and can reach a maximum height of 4.5m/14.75”. Additionally, the whole system can be collapsed and packed into 3 cases that are airline-approved.

However, this compact design comes with a major drawback, namely the maximum payload that the system can support. This is set at approximately 10kg/22lbs, meaning that the arm can only be used with lightweight camera packages and gimbals, such as the DJI Ronin 4D (our review here) that was used during the demonstration or the DJI RS 3 Pro.

Lastly, while no specific licence is normally required to work with such systems, always be sure to check out the safety requirements to operate the Tilta Hydra Arm Mini on the roads of your region.

Price and availability

Considering its nature, the Hydra Arm Mini is a pretty affordable system. Indeed, its official retail price is set at just $9,999. The company is currently running a private pre-sale via their Tilta Partner Program and will start shipping limited quantities of this product towards the end of the year. A larger number of units should be available to the public in early 2023.

For more information, please visit Tilta’s website here.

Do you think this system can simplify your job when filming fast-moving vehicles? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!