Skip to main content

Vitec Photographic partners with Sony to offer a line of tripods and accessories

tripods
The first product to come from the agreement will be a special edition of the original Manfrotto Befee, pictured above. Manfrotto
The company behind tripod brands like Manfrotto and Gitzo will soon be launching a series of special edition Sony tripods. On Thursday, September 28, Vitec Photographic announced a collaboration with Sony, allowing the two to work side by side on a new line of products.

Vitec, a company that owns more than 20 different photography brands including Manfrotto, Gitzo, Lasolite, Sachtler, and now Joby and Lowepro, announced the collaboration during the 100th-anniversary event for Gitzo in Tokyo.

Recommended Videos

For photographers, the collaboration means a new line of products is coming designed specifically for Sony interchangeable lens cameras like the Sony a9 and a7 mirrorless series, the compact a6500 mirrorless and the a99 II SLT, among other alpha cameras. The new series will launch in 2018, Vitec says.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The first product to come out of the agreement will be a special version of the Manfrotto Befree, a best-selling travel tripod. The new tripod is expected to be unveiled at the PhotoPlus expo in New York on October 26. That is just the first to come, Vitec says, with new Manfrotto and Gitzo tripods, plates, photo heads and video heads slated to come from the agreement. The company says the upcoming products are “targeted at professionals who demand utmost quality and high performance.”

Along with the hardware, the agreement is also expected to produce a special edition of Digital Director, remote camera control software from Manfrotto.

“We are proud to announce the agreement with Sony,” Marco Pezzana, CEO of the Vitec Group Photographic Division, said in a statement. “This collaboration sees our brands Manfrotto and Gitzo, leaders in the market of photo and video accessories, working side by side with the prestigious Sony brand, globally renowned for product excellence and superior technology, with the primary intent of collaborating to the development of even more innovative products for professional content creators, thus further increasing customer satisfaction and future business growth.”

The agreement comes shortly after Vitec announced the acquisition of Joby, the company behind the flexible mini tripods Gorillapods, and Lowepro, a camera bag company. The move, announced earlier this week, allows the photography accessory company to expand into smartphone photography as well as expanding its existing bag knowledge.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Don’t miss the chance to get this 128GB SD card for less than $100
The Lexar 128GB Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card on a white background.

Your new purchase from camera deals will need storage for photos and videos, but you can't buy just any SD card that you see online. It's highly recommended that you invest in a high-quality storage device like the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card, which you can currently get from B&H Photo Video with a $75 discount on its 128GB version that brings its price down from $170 originally to a more affordable $95. You may want to buy multiples of this SD card while it's available for less than $100, but you'll have to hurry because we're not sure how much time is remaining on this bargain.

Why you should buy the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card
More devices are using microSD cards for expanded storage, but according to our guide on finding the right memory card for your digital camera, most DSLR cameras and mirrorless cameras are still using SD cards like the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card. Lexar is one of the brands that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend to photographers, and this SD card's read speed of 300 MB/s and write speed of 260 MB/s will enable quick transfers and smooth shooting. Additionally, as an UHS-II card, you won't have a problem with advanced functions such as continuous shutter bursts, rapid shooting, and raw and JPEG captures.

Read more
Capture all the action with the GoPro HERO12 Black — $150 off today at Amazon
The GoPro Hero 12 Black Creator Edition set up on a small tripod on the beach.

In the moment, when you're blasting over that jump on your dirt bike, catching that killer wave, or jumping off of whatever insane cliff you've found, you don't necessarily think about capturing it all. But one of the best ways to make that happen is to strap on an action cam, like a GoPro. You can capture all of the action, and it's relatively low-lift. You wear whatever unique mount is best for the situation and the camera does all the work. There's just one issue, action cameras can be expensive especially if you're on a budget. However, today, Amazon has the GoPro HERO12 Black for $150 off. That brings it down from its normal price of $400 to $250. You can use that extra money to grab an accessory and you're good to go. GoPro HERO12 Black captures it all in 5.3K or 4K so you can rewatch the glory over and over.

 
Why buy the GoPro HERO12 Black? To capture the action, that's why
An action camera like a GoPro makes it possible to capture the action, in full detail, no matter what you're doing. You don't even have to be doing crazy stunts either. A common misconception is that they're only useful for outdoor activities, but no they work for filming just about anything. Even if you're having a barbecue, or a birthday party, or want to see what your roaming cat sees throughout the day -- a GoPro is what you need.

Read more
NASA astronaut Don Pettit talks photography from the space station
NASA astronaut Don Pettit discussing his photography from aboard the ISS.

NASA ASTRONAUT DISCUSSES PHOTOGRAPHY IN SPACE WITH NASASPACEFLIGHT.COM

NASA astronaut Don Pettit arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in September on his fourth orbital mission in 22 years. Besides working on various science projects on the space-based facility, Pettit is also known for his keen interest in photography, and he regularly shares his impressive efforts -- including rivers, clouds, star trails, and high-speed spacecraft -- on X and Instagram.

Read more