Re: [Rollei] Tripod threads was: Hello and Question

[Bob Shell <bob >]

> From: Mark Rabiner <mark  >
> Organization: Mark Rabiner Photography
> Reply-To: rollei  us
> Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 01:27:25 -0700
> To: rollei  us
> Subject: Re: [Rollei] Tripod threads  was: Hello and Question
> 
> Gitzo heads are 3/8. I'm standardized on that I guess. So i think is
> Bogan/Manfrotto. Lester was American wasn't he?


Lester was very American.  Lino Manfrotto is very Italian.  Lino was working
as a commercial photographer and was frustrated by the lack of quality and
poor design of the light stands available and so he designed and made his
own.  Friends saw them and wanted ones like them, and so he found himself in
business making light stands without ever really intending it.  One year he
took a trip to photokina and was carrying his sample light stands around
looking for someone to sell them.  He met Lester Bogen, and the rest, as
they say, is history.  The tripods came after the light stands, and then
other studio accessories followed.

Today Gruppo Manfrotto is a large company based in Bassano del Grappa and
with factories in several towns in the area.  Actually, these days the photo
business is just a small part of their overall business.  Their major money
maker is department store display fixtures and mannequins.

When Gitzo was in serious financial trouble and looked to go out of
business, Manfrotto bought them, and now some of the Gitzo products are made
in Manfrotto's Italian factories and some still in the Gitzo factory just
outside of Paris. 

Bob

------------------------------