Rycote sold to Vitec

Run&Gun said:
I don't know if I'd go as fas as hate, but I think it's from a lot of old dogs like me that have been dealing with a lot of the companies since "back in the day" when they were a lot more "mom 'n pop" and we have seen the change in the way some of the divisions/companies customer service has changed and also the change in reliability and design with some of the products.
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I own two Sachtler tripods, one so old it has "Made in Western Germany" marked on it. This is a FINE piece of kit, well machined and with outstanding quality. I have recently used current Sachtler tripods and they are NOTHING like the original. Vitec has been buying up everything and anything to do with gear for our work and I am concerned. I like and am willing to pay for quality gear that is well made. My feeling is in certain areas Vitec can't do much harm, such as Petrol bags now rebranded as Sachtler but the new tripods and heads are Manfrotto quality in old school terms. So now they buy another classic quality company....does this mean better prices and the same quality? I doubt it, but does this leave room for Rode to compete? Will they be next? Atomos? BlackMagic? I don't know but I will stick with Quality companies and amazing bespoke builders like Berkey Systems, Shape, etc.
 
ggrantly said:
I have several gripes:

Customer service at Manfrotto New Jersey is just stupidly bad (for years). I could give multiple examples of this.

They killed Petrol and with it, some really nice product.

They sued the rest of the emergent LCD light business about 5 years ago for patent infringement on a really skimpy premise. They claimed to have patent on all LCD lights for video like it was their idea to LCD's for video. It took years for the industry to sort itself. Not sure if they were finally defeated or if everyone is paying them for license. Maybe someone else knows.

That's a start.
Grant
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I remember that court case, ridiculous. Didn't realise Vitec owned Litepanels back then. I've always thought it is unhealthy for one company to own so many tripod brands but didn't realise they had their fingers in quite so many pies.
 
Liam Hall said:
I remember that court case, ridiculous. Didn't realise Vitec owned Litepanels back then. I've always thought it is unhealthy for one company to own so many tripod brands but didn't realise they had their fingers in quite so many pies.
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I believe it's around 20 companies/brands. Maybe more.

Some of the heavy hitters just off the top of my head:
Vinten
Sachtler
O'Connor
Anton Bauer
Litepanels
Teradek
Parralinx
smallHD
Wooden Camera
Rycote
Petrol(shuttered and rolled into Sachtler)

I know I own gear from at least of of those brands I listed.
 
They also rolled Kata into Manfrotto. The quality of Kata's old bags were leagues beyond whatever they are now.

One nice thing they do is have a bit of sharing between their quick release plates. And while Sachtler may have taken a hit, Vinten and O'Connor seem to be chugging along just fine.
 
Liam Hall said:
I don't understand all the hate for Vitec. Where does this come from?
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Simple examples..

Small HD - I have two of thier DP1 monitors - solid as they day I bought them - built by a small band passionate about developing an affordable monitor. My 502 - the SDI broke, they changed the design but Vitec/Small wont help me get it sorted - thus bumming a person who bought moe than £3g of SMall monitors during thier critical startup phase of business.
The 502 is kiddie quality at production equipment pricing. I know the joystick will fail soon.

Ive now started buying Atomos! (Kiddie quality at Kiddie prices)

Manfotto. I have heaps of 1990s manfrotto tripods - the stills sticks with gear head is so good I use it on Phantom macro shoots - we bought another current gearhead manfrotto and it is too flmsy to support a goPro.

All Pre Vitec tripods are better.. Vinten or Sachler

Lite Panels - I 'used' a little (on camera) light panel on a feature (you know 50 crew waiting for you to rig the shot) did up the Kipp lever and completely sheared it off the unit. Instant lesson.. (logical or not) "never touch a LightPanel"

To be fair, Manfrotto have some classic designs in grip, and AFAIK expensive sachlers still work good, just not the sub $1000 ones.

Lupo and Atomos - I know thier importers and have a mobile number to call if it goes sideways, Vitec? Who you gonna call?
 
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It broke my heart when smalHD got snapped-up by Vitec. I haven't bought any of their monitors since the incredible DP7Pro OLED(pre-Vitec), but at least here in the US, I can still call and talk to them directly in their office located about 2.5-3 hours from me.

If you have used any of the "old" Litepanels gear vs. the newer stuff, the new lights definetly feel more consumerish(and the designs most definitely look like consumer gear. Actually like Fisher-Price designed it). The old 1x1's and "on-camera brick" panels were built like tanks. But then again, everything used to be built to last/survive in a real world production environment and not be thrown away/replaced every few years or the first time something broke.
 
I always consider using the phrase 'Fisher Price'.. but actually they, unlike Vitec, make products that you can toss down the stairs, or entrust to an angry two year old.. which is how production gear should be made :)
 
Run&Gun said:
I believe it's around 20 companies/brands. Maybe more.

Some of the heavy hitters just off the top of my head:
Vinten
Sachtler
O'Connor
Anton Bauer
Litepanels
Teradek
Parralinx
smallHD
Wooden Camera
Rycote
Petrol(shuttered and rolled into Sachtler)

I know I own gear from at least of of those brands I listed.
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Some of the folks who got pulled into the fold were glad, because it enabled them to deliver better products and get them out there more quickly (that's from the horse's mouth, Mark Pederson the owner/founder of Omod).

But having so many big names in the industry under one umbrella is rarely healthy for the long term.

Teradek and Omod appear to be largely the same company now. I have an Omod POE and ended up getting its firmware update and customer service from Teradek rather than from Omod, partly because I couldn't find a way to download the firmware from Omod's site or contact a customer service rep from there, either.

Seems like a mixed bag to me. Especially since Teradek's largest competitor is also a Vitec group member...
 
Tamerlin said:
Especially since Teradek's largest competitor is also a Vitec group member...
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Obviously ideal for Vitech and any and all businesses who own companies which compete with each other...99% of people will not know this.

Very popular in the food & drink industry.
 
There are some other companies making cool things for audio if you want to support small business. Also, for the first few years of a buy out, there isn’t that much change in the company that was bought. You are often still supporting the same people even if ownership has changed.
 
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