Vitec ate Wooden Camera

[Dylan Couper]

Apparently Wooden Camera is part of Vitec now.
At some point, will it be easier to list the gear companies that aren't owned by Vitec?

[Zach Love]

I've been saying for years they're the Umbrella Corp. of camera equipment. Still, I really love a lot of their brands. Other than Kata bags getting absorbed into "Sachtler Bags," it seems like they really keep their companies alive & innovating.

I haven't owned any Wooden Camera equipment and honestly just thought of them as a small independent company, but if they got purchased by Vitec, then some people with lots of money see potential for more money in Wooden Camera.

[Dylan Couper]

You mean Umbrella Corp like from Resident Evil right? :D

Kata (my all time fav bag maker) became Manfrotto bags (my all time least fav tripod bag maker). Or at least some of their designs are definitely under Manfrotto. Are they Sachtler bags as well>

Vitec should be able to make a lot more money out of Wooden Camera given the reach of their distribution and sales channel. Plus afaik Vitec doesn't have anything the the market that WC serves. Manfrotto's attempt into the rail systems world was... what's a polite word for garbage? So it should be an easy win for them.

[Casey Krugman]

Actually, Petrol bags became Sachtler bags.

[Dan Brockett]

So what happened to Kata Bags? I have Petrol, it's okay, I have a couple of Porta Braces, they are okay, but I really liked Kata's stuff.

[Dylan Couper]

See my post two up where I said Kata became Manfrotto bags? :)
Go look at Manfrotto's current pro video camera bag offering and tell me you don't feel just a little heartbroken...

[Dan Brockett]

That's what I meant, it looks as if Manfrotto just bought the name, none of their bags seem to look like Kata bags at all. So it looks as if Kata didn't sell off their any of their designs before being ingested? To me, this looks like a classic case of "Buy off your competition and kill the brand." Sad.

[Zach Love]

Originally Posted by Casey Krugman

Actually, Petrol bags became Sachtler bags.

And you're correct, I mixed that one up. Petrol is now sold under the Sachtler logo and then Kata got absorbed under the Manfrotto logo. But they're all Vitec Group companies.

Looks like:

Kata / Manfrotto happened in 2014:
https://www.cinema5d.com/kata-bags-b...mes-manfrotto/

Petrol / Sachtler happened in 2015:
Sachtler Launches New Premium Bags Line, Phases Out Petrol Bags - Streaming Media Producer

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It seems to me that after a decade of Vitec operating Kata & Petrol as their own brands, Vitec felt that they could sell more by putting them under new logos. From what I can tell, the quality hasn't changed for "Manfrotto" and "Sachtler" bags, which really leads me to believe it wasn't so much a merger as a re-branding.

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Also:

Manfrotto became part of Vitec in 1989:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfrotto

Sachtler became part of Vitec in 1995:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachtler

Kata became part of Vitec in 2005:
https://web.archive.org/web/20101213...ut.asp?page=12

Petrol became part of Vitec in 2006:
The Vitec Group to acquire Petrol Bags | TvTechnology

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Lastly, I find it interesting that both Petrol & Kata came from Israel compared with how Manfrotto is Italian, Viten is English, Sachtler is German. I wonder how two of the biggest (and best) camera bag makers came from the same part of the globe.