Gitzo made in Italy???

[Bob Salomon]

Scott, Vintec owns Gitzo, Manfrotto, and Bogen. Vintec decides, not Manfrotto.

Not quite, Dan.
The owner is the Vitec Group. Not Vintec.

Vitec owns lots of other companies. Manfrotto and Gitzo are just part of it.

- Anton/Bauer
- Autoscript
- The Camera Store
- Litepanels
- Microwave Service Company
- Nucomm
- OConnor
- Petrol Bags
- RF Central
- Sachtler
- Vinten
- Vinten Radamec
- Avenger
- Brilliant Stages
- Gitzo
- Kata
- Litec
- Manfrotto
- Manfrotto Distribution
- National Geographic (manufactured & distributed under licence)
- Tomcat
- Bexel

[Dan Fromm]

The name changed, Bob. My bad.

[Bob Salomon]

They no longer honor the lifetime guarantee those of us who have older tripods got when we bought them.

Actually it wasn't a Gitzo lifetime warranty. It was a Karl Heitz lifetime warranty. Heitz was the importer of Gitzq before Bogen and the sale of Gitzo to Mafrotto. Since Heitz was the importer Bogen had no obligation to honor the old importer's warranty legally. And Karl died several years ago without being able to sell what remained of his company. So the company that was resposible for that warranty just dissolved and went away.

Bogen and Manfrotto never offered a lifetime warranty and neither did Gitzo.