This is a contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Fan Of… #58 photo challenge.
Firstly I should say that I don’t know if Uni-Loc are still in business. I emailed them a couple of years ago and after an initial response never heard from them again. Their Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2012. I have been using the tripods since the early 1990s and used to know Ken Brett, the man behind the design.
Uni-Loc tripods are very different from most tripods. The system tripods can be disassembled and reassembled in a different configuration with an Allen key (wrench). The legs can be locked at almost any angle and all three lock with a single locking lever. The bottom leg sections are sealed meaning that they can be submerged up to the locking knob without taking on water. If you submerge the legs above the first section they can quickly be removed and drained with an Allen key (wrench).
They aren’t a tripod I would recommend to most photographers, they’re heavy and bulky when folded but in deep water, snow or mud they’re my first choice.
In 1995 I spent the summer in Saskatchewan, Canada. I took my medium sized Uni-Loc tripod with me in case I needed to use a tripod in water or mud.
A Willet photographed on a shallow slough near Punnichy, Saskatchewan with the tripod. Some of the sloughs in the area can be quite alkaline so the sealed legs were useful. I could rinse any mud off the legs when I got a chance to.
To get into position for this photo I waded through knee high snow and then pushed the tripod legs down into the snow for maximum stability.
The tripod in use on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline at sunrise. I was photographing the waves forming icicles. By the time I was ready to pack the tripod away two of the legs were frozen to the pebbles.
What I was photographing while the tripod was freezing to the pebbles.
