Sachtler is a manufacturer of film and video camera support products and reporter lighting equipment. The company was founded in 1958 and was integrated in Great Britain’s Vitec Group plc. in 1995.

Company founder

Wendelin Sachtler was a cinematographer, actor and inventor. In 1958 he designed the first tripod head. This so-called gyroscopic head provided not only pans and tilt motion, but also added gyroscopic damping to smooth out camera moves. The new tripod

Tripod

A tripod is a portable three-legged frame, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The word comes from the Greek tripous, meaning "three feet". A tripod provides stability against downward forces, horizontal forces and moments about the...

 head proved so popular with fellow camera operators  that it led to the foundation of a new company, Sachtler, to meet demand.

The company

Beginning in 1958, the company's founder Wendelin Sachtler built his tripod heads in a small workshop in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

-Schwabing, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. After a pair of moves, since 2004 Sachtler GmbH has been located in Eching near Munich. Sachtler has 150 employees worldwide and is represented by retailers in more than 140 countries. The company has production facilities in Germany, Costa Rica and Great Britain.

In 1992 the company was awarded the "Scientific and Engineering Award", and award set up by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

 

Products

The company's portfolio can be divided into:

• Camera support
• Camera stabilizer systems
• Reporter lighting equipment
• Wendelin Sachtler Academy (provides training in film and video production) | tutor: Curt O. Schaller, designer & inventor of the camera stabilizer systems (artemis by Sachtler)

The camera support division includes the production of Sachtler fluid heads, tripods and pedestals. Products manufactured in Sachtler’s camera stabilizer division are branded artemis. The reporter lighting division includes LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

lighting, daylight and tungsten light. The Wendelin Sachtler Academy presents speakers with many years experience in the film and video production business who pass on their practical experience.

External links

• http://www.sachtler.com/index.php?id=626/ Sachtler Story
• Sachtler
• Vitec Group