www.flickr.com/groups/manfrotto-gear/ - a group not run by or connected to Manfrotto in any official way, but which we're proud to see exists on flickr... run by Paul Woolrich (to whom we are eternally grateful)

- "manfrotto"-tagged photos on a the flickr world map

Official Local Contacts and Profiles

Manfrotto has now a network of local subsidiaries in some of the most important contries in the world. Please feel free to add them and contact for local equiries and to find a Manfrotto dedicated person speaking the local languages.

Manfrotto USA

Manfrotto UK

Manfrotto Germany

Manfrotto Japan

Manfrotto Italy

NB: For any product issue or customer service equiries please use the apopriate form at this address:

Manfrotto Contact Us

Manfrotto flickr groups:

Manfrotto Official Group: post pictures, ask questions, discuss techniques, anything goes....

190CX: Operation Museum: photos of our most popular tripod series - the 190

tripod tech: discuss tripod technology and share tips and advice.

About Manfrotto

The history of Manfrotto:

In the late 1960s, Lino Manfrotto, an Italian photographer and photoreporter for Il Gazzettino and Il Giornale di Vicenza living in Bassano del Grappa (curious?), was finding it impossible to get hold of light stands and accessories that were both portable enough for location assignments and sturdy enough for the rigours of professional work. With help from a colleague, he produced a lightweight lamp stand for himself... then for his photographer friends... then for a Swiss distributor. He developed other products and his garage quickly became a workshop, but the increasing demand for his stands, booms and telescopic rods outgrew the home production line, and in 1972, Manfrotto started in earnest.

Key to the new company's success was Lino's meeting that year with Gilberto Battocchio, an engineer who was able to find elegant technical solutions to the problems Lino and other photographers faced. The two men made a formidable partnership.

In 1974 another turning point was reached, when Manfrotto launched their first photo camera tripod - a product that has almost become synonimous with Manfrotto over the years. Other innovative products were launched, the very names of which have become industry-standards and part of everyday vocabulary for professional photographers - the Superclamp®... the Autopole®... and many more besides.

By 1986, Manfrotto had gone from a family-run garage workshop to 6 production plants in the nearby town of Feltre and 4 in and around Bassano del Grappa.

In 1992, Manfrotto became part of the Vitec Group plc and are listed on the London Stock Exchange... but to this day, production is still based almost entirely in the same area of Northern Italy: the same care and skill as ever goes into hand-assembling and testing tripod heads; the same perfectionism and patience into polishing the tubes that become tripod legs; the same desire to engineer the ideal answers to passionate photographers' needs leads to products that still break new ground and set the standards for the rest of industry...and the company's headquarters are still on a rural road that runs along a valley in the foothills of the Dolomites. Even if we say so ourselves, it's a beautiful place to work, and a beautiful place to photograph.