Cartoni

Cartoni S.p.A. is an Italian, family-run maker of professional camera support equipment for motion picture and television production, with offices and a factory in Rome. The company dates its origins to 1935, when Renato Cartoni, a documentary filmmaker at Istituto Nazionale Luce, invented the Gyro head; his son Guido Cartoni established the present company in 1962. Elisabetta and Beatrice Cartoni now run the business, with Elisabetta Cartoni as president and CEO.

Cartoni designs, manufactures and assembles its products in Rome: fluid heads, tripods, pedestals, jibs, dollies, remote heads and related accessories. In 2023 it acquired STE-MAN Inc. (Manios Digital & Film) of North Hollywood, its U.S. distributor since 1989.

Its first heads were made under the ARRI brand name and sold internationally. Guido Cartoni received a Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for repeatable fluid modules in fluid action heads, and the company holds 33 patents on fluid drag and counterbalance systems and tripods. Its fluid head lines include the Focus, Master, Maxima and Lambda series.