You're right peter, good eye, they are parallel/straight and not tapered. They are either new made straight legs or the old one's slimed/thinned down straight to match the dia. of bottom end caps. If the original long tripod legs were just cut down to that length, the wood would be much thicker/larger dia. at the end caps. So they are basically straight to fit the upper metal platform sockets and the bottom metal end caps. Ray