The fifth article about tripods! We are almost there! : ) In this article I will talk about tripod’s adaptability.

Oh, and if you have missed my last article about tripods, when I have talked about everything you need to know about the height of a tripod, you can read it here!

Good feature: Tripods need to be easy to adjust.

If you are shooting outdoors or at events, you want the tripod to be set up (&closed) and adjusted as quickly as possible to not waste time and/or miss any good opportunities for the shot.

What makes tripod easy to adjust:

• Type of leg locks.
• Leg spread.
• Leg bracing.
• Attachment plate: is a camera quickly removable from a tripod head or not (I am talking about this in a tripod head’s article – coming soon).

Specification: Type of leg locks / locking mechanism

With leg locks you secure the length of tripod sections (legs).

Tripod leg locks are one of the most important parts of any tripod, therefore you should consider that:

• They are the weakest part of a tripod: if leg locks are weak, tripod cannot be sturdy.
• Fewer leg locks tripod has, more sturdy it is. This corresponds well with what I have discussed in one of my previous articles: less leg sections a tripod has, more sturdy it is.
• Fewer leg locks means less work (therefore quicker) to adjust the legs.

There are two basic types of tripod locking mechanisms: twist locks and clamp (flip) locks. There are also wing locks, but rarely used.

Before describing the types of locks I want to point out couple of things:

1. Quality of locks depends on the manufacturers and not the type of locks itself. If the tripod is cheap, locks will be cheap (=prone to failure). You will use them a lot so make sure they can survive constant use. If you buy tripod from good manufacturers, locks should be good.
2. Both are simple to use. It only comes down to what YOU find easier to operate.
3. So TRY them OUT before buying a tripod. I hope I don’t need to stress too much again to try the locks of specific brand of tripods you are looking at the moment – and not at the type of lock of just any brand (they can really differ in quality significantly).
4. Why is it important that you like them? Simply, whenever you will want to extend or collapse the tripod legs, you will need to use them (and that will happen a lot).  It should be easy and they should feel comfortable to you. Imagine to open (and close) 9 locks each time you want to extend (and close) the tripod (if having a 3-section tripod; 4-section tripod have even 12 locks) while hating it!
5. The descriptions of the locks (pros and cons) are general and may not be relevant to all manufacturers.

Twist-lock mechanism

They come in variety of other names: twist system, internal twist lock, rotating locks , collar lock..

How they work: rotate the lock to unlock the legs, pull out the legs to desired length and lock the legs by rotating the lock to the opposite direction.

Tips for faster operation:

• To open, grip all locks on one leg at once (with your palm) and twist to release the locks. Now pull the leg in desired length and tighten each lock separately.
• It is the easiest to start releasing the locks from bottom-up (if you are doing one lock at the time). But this is contradicting with the best stability rule (so keep it in mind), which only apply if you are not extending all the legs all the way: for the best stability of a tripod, first extend the widest top sections and in the end the the lowest section of the leg (if necessary).
• When you are tightening the locks, it is easier to do it from up-down.
• Some Gitzo tripods have an ALR (Anti Leg Rotation System) that allows to open even a 5-section tripod in less than 15 seconds. To do that, loosen all the twist locks (on all legs), pull the legs down and tighten the locks.
• Some Gitzo tripods have a G-lock. This locking mechanism is incredibly rigid, strong, safe and fast to operate: to lock or unlock it requires only a quarter twist.

Clamp locks

They have many other names, for instance: snap locks, locking knobs, lock collar, thumb lock, quick levers, flip pressure lock, flip lock, click lock, flip lever, clamp lever, clamp lock, speed release…

How to use: To unlock, unsnap the locking lever, pull out the leg to the desired length and lock the leg by pressing back the lever.

Tips for faster operation:

• Unlock all the locks, shake it a bit and the legs will “fall out”. Snap them back in the position.
• As I have mentioned before at twist locks, for the best stability of a tripod, first extend the widest top sections and in the end the the lowest section of the leg.

Wing locks

They are similar to clamp locks, just that instead of flipping the lock, you rotate it.

These are the slowest and cheapest of all locking mechanisms available, therefore seen mostly on studio tripods, when quick setup is not that important.

How do you know how far you need to pull out the other two legs?

You extend one leg and lock it into position. How do you know how far you should extend the other two? There are few techniques you can use:

1. The easiest technique is to extend the legs to the desired height while they are still folded (before spreading them). This will allow you faster operation (with both twist and clamp locks) as well as to quickly assess how far you should extend the other two legs.
2. Use fingers for measuring: lock one leg to the desired length and then with your palm measure the distance between the locks and apply it to other two legs.
3. Draw a scale on tripod legs.

This is the third time I’m going to repeat it (but it is very important, so again): for the best stability of a tripod, first extend the widest top sections and in the end the the lowest section of the leg (if not extending tripod legs all their length). To remind you why I stress this out so much, read this article.

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