Support & Grip

Photographic, Inc.

Bear Images

Bear Images Photographic, Inc. • San Francisco, CA 94107 • 650-321-2327 • support@bearimages.com

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Manfrotto - Imagine More

At the end of the '60s Lino Manfrotto was a photo reporter in Bassano del Grappa for Il Gazzettino and Il Giornale di Vicenza. He was also engaged in industrial and advertising photography. The photographer’s studio equipment was cumbersome, heavy and did not facilitate the work of professionals. The market offered a wide range of studio flash-units and quartz illuminators, but completely neglected basic accessories such as stands, booms and clamps.

Thus, with the help of a collaborator, Lino Manfrotto made his first products, including a light and sturdy lamp stand, that was finally high enough. For a couple of years he produced just a few pieces to meet the needs of his photographer friends.

The garage became a production workshop. It was there that the first Manfrotto booms, telescopic rods and other stands were manufactured. He soon realized that the production capacity was insufficient to address all the orders from customers.

Bear Images Photographic, Inc. • San Francisco, CA 94107 • 650-321-2327 • support@bearimages.com

Lights, Stands, Grip Gear, Cases, Still and Motion Tripods, Rail Systems, Studio Stands, if it holds a camera, a light, a product or a background ... We Got it... offering the widest range of true professional products and real working solutions....

In 1972 Lino Manfrotto met Gilberto Battocchio, a technician working for a Bassano mechanical firm. The commercial and product soul had meet his technical counterpart. It was an all-important moment. Battocchio’s arrival turned Lino’s product into three-dimensional solutions. The two made a great team, and within just a few short years they had created a leading enterprise on a world level.

In 1974 the first Manfrotto (Bogen) tripod was launched. Innovative, light and versatile, Manfrotto tripods and stands achieved success in many markets. Articles such as the Superboom, Autopole®, and Superclamp® became an important part of every photographic studios all over the world.

In 1987 the Avenger brand was established, responding to the needs of photo and cine markets. Product quality became the hallmark of this range, which could withstand extreme use, rough atmospheric conditions with high load capacities.

In 1989 the entire Lino Manfrotto shareholding was sold to the British Vitec Group plc, a multinational company listed on the London Stock Exchange. At the time it was operating in the broadcasting sector with American, German, English and French subsidiaries.

1992 saw the purchase of the French company Gitzo, a leader in the sector of tripods and heads for top end amateurs and professional photography.

In 1993 the American company Bogen, specialized in the distribution of photographic material in the USA, was purchased.