My 3 legged friend Winston — David Taylor - Master Jeweller

Most of the time on my photo walks I am all alone except for my 3 legged friend Winston. For quite a few years now I have been using 3 Legged Thing tripods. In June 2020 I started using pretty much exclusively a tripod from their pro range called Winston.

These are my comments on the tripod after 3years of using and abusing this tripod. 3 Legged Thing have paid me nothing for this review or anything else ever.

You can look up the specs here, it is a pro level carbon fibre tripod. I am not a pro but I hope to show you in this post how an avid amateur can use this tripod system to their benefit.

The first thing about me is I take my camera anywhere and that means my tripod is very often in flowing water. The above photos are taken at Dalrymple Creek in Broadwater State Forest.

A very poorly levelled Winston in Dalrymple Creek :)

My tripod needs to be both secure and functional in the water. Winston is both for me despite my failure to properly level him if the above photo is anything to go by.

Winston’s long and sturdy legs come in very handy when the time comes to be creative with your tripod setup.

Setting up for the previous photo waiting for sunset.

With a smaller tripod you just cannot manage things like this. At times carrying a full pro size tripod is a bit of a hassle, especially in the rainforest where even reduced to its shortest form and attached to my bag can catch on the vegetation. Being able to readily position for photos like this makes up for it however.

Ellis Beach looking back up to Port Douglas, October 2021.

Most photographers will know that salt water and sand are the mortal enemies of our gear. That said of all my gear my tripod gets the least protection from the elements.

Setting up for the previous photo to wait for the afterburn.

I protect my camera as much as I can from salt water and sand. With Winston he just faces the elements during a photo shoot. After any photo shoot in salt water and or sand I make sure to show him some love and disassemble and clean him, which is quite easy to do.

With the addition of the very small Vanz legs to my camera bag I can quickly remove all three legs and convert Winston to a mini tripod for close to the ground photos.

I do not use an L bracket and that would certainly be much better for balance when shooting in portrait mode on the Vanz legs. That said I have never had an issue so far.

At times I may only need to have one or two short legs and I have that option with this system.

Other than times when I need more height (can you ever have enough in a tripod?) there are few situations that I cannot set Winston up for my desired composition.

For the above photo I only needed one short leg to get my camera in that perfect spot for the photo.

I can very quickly remove the legs I want and also the centre column. I have become very efficient at doing this but the system is also very easy to use. My only fear when I do this is leaving a part behind but I have done that with cameras, filters…you name it, I have left it in the bush :)

And then Winston had one leg

Plumed Whistling Duck, Hastie’s Swamp, September 2022.

The main genre of photography I do is landscape. However I often find myself wanting to capture beautiful birds and wildlife I encounter during my travels. In those situations I find the 3 section legs of Winston very useful.

Converting Winston to a monopod for wildlife.

Turning Winston into a Monopod takes just minutes. The three long sections of each leg make it very easy to adjust the monopod for use standing, kneeling or sitting on the ground. Legs with 4 or five sections I find less sturdy and take longer to manipulate.

With Winston I can have a tripod, mini tripod and monopod in one.

A very well used Winston on my camera bag, February 2023.

I go to a lot of very wild places with Winston. He certainly has taken a hammering and I expected him to be ready to retire by now.

Which leads me to another great thing about 3 Legged Thing as a company, they actually support what they sell! What a rare attribute for a business to have nowadays. More on this later

Of course you can take photos you will love with cheaper and smaller tripods. I have done so in the past using the smaller Corey tripod from 3 Legged Thing for several years prior to Winston coming on the scene.

In fact I still use Corey from time to time carrying him on the other side of my camera bag opposite Winston.

Corey set up for that same composition back in 2021.

That said Winston makes setting up so much faster and easier. Corey now gets mainly used for product photography. Still a great tripod and there if I ever need something smaller.

Unbelievable support.

A very roughed up Canopy section of Winston.

The best part about the 3 Legged Thing company is the support….again to be clear…….not sponsored nor paid, just a no one photographer they stuck by.

When I had a very small issue with my tripod canopy I contacted them and they immediately organised a replacement one. This all despite them seeing the condition of my tripod which I openly admitted to treating very poorly and also advising them that I could still use it.

In fact I told them I could fix this issue with lock tight glue but they still insisted on replacing the part they deemed faulty. After I received the new canopy I repaired the old one with lock tight and it now goes in my bag with the Vanz legs permanently attached to it as a mini tripod.

I have used Winston a great deal, pretty much every day for the past 3 years in mostly terrible conditions of rainforest, rocky hillsides or beach. Inside the legs are the locking washer (shown above) and guides which over use will wear down. When I had an issue with mine they sent me replacement parts free of charge.

if you want a truly flexible pro grade tripod made by a company that will back their product then look no further. My past five years of putting 3 Legged Thing tripods through hell, and the last three with Winston, should prove to you that they they are well worth a look and certainly up to the job.

Sure there are more expensive high end tripods out there but these are value for money in my opinion. I looked at a Gitzo but the last thing I wanted is a tripod so expensive I am afraid to use/abuse it.