Amateur Photographer verdict
The 3 Legged Thing Luna is an excellent lightweight stand that’ll hold an LED light or flash securely 2m above the ground. As a bonus it converts to a boom arm. But it only works on flat surfaces.- Very lightweight
- Tall yet sturdy
- Boom arm option
- Expensive for a light stand
- No way of adjusting for uneven ground
The 3 Legged Thing Luna is a carbon-fibre stand that can lift a photographic light up to 2m above the ground. Thanks to a reverse-folding design, it achieves this within a relatively portable 56cm folded length. It weighs less than a kilogram, too, which means it’s easy to carry around.
3 Legged Thing Luna at a glance:
- $149.99 / £129.99
- 2m maximum height
- 56cm folded length
- 944g weight
- 5kg rated load
- Boom arm length 56-165cm
- 3leggedthing.com
So far, there’s nothing particularly special about that – other makers offer similar designs. But Luna packs an additional trick. Unscrew the centre column, and you get a lightweight boom arm that’s extendable from 56cm to 165cm. You could use this for holding a microphone, a light, or even a small camera in a position that would be difficult to reach in any other way.
The boom arm has a 3/8in thread at the other end, which you could use to fix it onto a tripod (although you’d need a means to stop everything toppling over).
3 Legged Thing Luna key features
- Spikes: Pull off the chunky rubber feet, and you’ll find spikes underneath for use on soft ground
- Top connector: The stand has a standard 5/8in spigot on top for attaching lights, plus a 1/4in screw with a retracting 3/8in surround
- Colours: Luna comes in either an all-black finish, or ‘Lava’ which features metallic orange accents
- Carry case: You get a basic draw-string nylon storage/carrying case in the box
Thanks to chunky, rubberised twist locks, the stand is quick and easy to set up and adjust. If you’re shooting outdoors on a soft surface such as grass, you can pull off the feet to reveal spikes for greater stability. Note though that like most (but not all) light stands, it’s only suitable for use on flat ground, as you can’t adjust the lengths of the legs, and they all have to be set to the same angle.
3 Legged Thing says that Luna will support up to 5kg in weight. I don’t have lights anywhere near that heavy, but I can tell you that it handles a 2kg load at maximum height with no problem at all. It’ll just wobble for a bit after you’ve set it up, or if you knock it, that’s all.
Now you might reasonably ask why anyone would need a carbon-fibre light stand at all, when photographers have happily been using steel or aluminium stands in their studios for years, where they never have to be moved very far. But thanks to advances in Li-ion batteries and LED technology, studio-type lights are no longer restricted to this kind of use, and can readily be taken outdoors on location. Having lightweight, portable, but crucially, still sturdy stands to place them on makes a lot of sense.
A useful extra: 3 Legged Thing Monty accessory mount
While most lights come with brackets to attach them onto a stand, some smaller LED units are only supplied with fixed cold-shoe mounts. To fit one of these onto Luna, a tilting accessory mount such as the 3 Legged Thing Monty could be ideal. It comes in three versions, each with different mounting options. Pictured below is the Monty 3 variant.
3 Legged Thing Luna: Our Verdict
I’ve been impressed by the 3 Legged Thing Luna. It does what it’s supposed to with the minimum of fuss. The detachable boom arm is something I’d file under ‘nice to have’; I suspect many people may never use it at all, but once in a while it could prove invaluable. There’s no doubt, though, that £129.99 is expensive for a light stand, so it only really makes sense if you use either flash or LED lighting kit on location on a regular basis.
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