When Nikon and Canon first launched their full-frame mirrorless cameras, you could only buy accompanying lenses from them. But the list of third-party lenses for Nikon Z and Canon RF has been expanding, and Lensbaby is the latest company to join. They have launched as many as eight lenses that you can use natively with your Nikon Z or Canon RF.
My review of Lensbaby’s new OMNI filter system
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Lensbaby has become a bit of a household name in recent years and for those of us searching for a more unique look to our images, Lensbaby has been there to provide a whole host of creative solutions. Their latest product is no different, but this time around they aren’t producing a new lens, but instead a ‘creative filter system’ called the Omni.
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of these Omni’s prior to launch and I also had chance to test it out on a couple of portrait shoots recently so I thought I would share my thoughts on it here.
Lensbaby’s new OMNI filter system isn’t like any kind of filter system you’ve seen before
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Shooting through stuff like crystals and whatnot isn’t a new idea, but it’s not one that’s really been developed, commercially. Sure, you can go on Amazon and buy a crystal to shoot through, but it’s not easy to work with unless you want to build some kind of custom rig or just hold it yourself in front of your lens.
Lensbaby, though, has been working on this idea, and they’ve created the new OMNI Creative Filter System. At the moment, it’s essentially a ring that screws onto your lens with magnetic… divots, I suppose, into which you can mount one of several different “filters”.[Read More…]
New Lensbaby Sol 45mm f/3.5 is a $200 tilt-shift lens
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Lensbaby has just announced Sol 45, a budget-friendly tilt-shift lens. The Lensbaby Sol 45 is a 45mm f/3.5 lens, designed for both DSLR and mirrorless cameras. The company describes it as its “most playful and accessible lens yet,” so let’s see what you get with this $200 creative lens.
All these 1966 April Fools photography jokes turned out to be real by 2018
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Along with your gentle reminder about the being extra curious in the next few days, here is a short reminder of how April Fools Day was celebrated in photography blogs over fifty years ago. Well, lacking internet and blogs, they had to pre-conceive their jokes in advance and put them to print in time for magazines to hit the shelves for Aprils 1st. (certainly, not being obvious like Trademarking Bokeh, heh).
In 1966. Tony Karp, a guy who knows his gear* put togetheran extensive Aprils Fools piece for Modern Photography. This included a tilt lens, screen guides, large format reflex, a camera that will give you an electric shock if you screw up, and a few other gadgets.
Here is the amazing thing. Many of those gadgets are now actual products. The Flexagon is very similar to a Lensbaby composer, EVFs can do composition overlays (see this crazy one from the Sony A7III if you drool over EVFs).
Go through the different pieces of gear and see how many of them turned up to be real in the last few years (hint: all). Hit us in the comments with the modern version of these shenanigans.
Lensbaby Burnside 35 is a 35mm f/2.8 lens with variable bokeh and vignette
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Lensbaby has announced a new creative lens today: Burnside 35. It’s a 35mm f/2.8 wide angle adaptation of the Petzval lens design. Burnside 35 adds swirling bokeh and vignette around your subject, with an effect slider that operates as a second internal iris. This slider lets you can change the shape and amount of swirl in the bokeh; all while adding or removing vignette and center brightness. Something like Instagram filters in real life.
Tips on lighting with single coloured gels when shooting with a Lensbaby
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Often a scene can be visually confusing, especially if there are multiple colours and objects in focus that are fighting for our viewer’s attention. This simple technique that I’m sharing here uses a single dominant coloured gel to simplify the scene visually, then we can draw the attention of our viewer with our Lensbaby Sweet 50 lens.
Lensbaby release new Sweet 80 lens and new Creative Bokeh Optic
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In the past, I’ve not really been big on the whole Lensbaby thing. But, having now tried a few of them in person, I can safely say they’re winning me over. The “Sweet” range of lenses I particularly like for their aesthetic, especially when paired up with a Composer. Now lensbaby have launched a new Sweet 80 lens for the Composer II that looks fantastic.
Also announced today is the new Creative Bokeh Optic. A simple 50mm single element design that allows you to to get some pretty cool bokeh effects. It works with the Composer series, or legacy Muse, Control Freak or Scout lens bodies.
Hands On Review of the Lensbaby Velvet 85mm Classic Portrait and Art Lens
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A couple months ago, Lensbaby provided DIYP with a new Lensbaby Velvet 85mm Classic Portrait and Art Lens for review.
I happened to be on my way to Europe at the time, so I took the opportunity to try out the Lensbaby Velvet 85mm along the way.
Up until this point, I had never used a Lensbaby lens, so I was pretty excited to see what I could do with the Velvet 85mm – so much so that I left my usual 85mm (the Sigma ART f/1.4) at home in favor of the Lensbaby.
In total I spent six weeks photographing with the Lensbaby Velvet 85mm – in this review I will present my thoughts.
Five different Lensbaby lenses and their effects compared side-by-side
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If you’ve ever wondered what effect a specific Lensbaby lens has or if you’ve ever wondered how that compares to other lensbaby lenses or even standard lenses then this article is for you.
I took the same image of a model using a wide variety of Lensbaby lenses as well as standard prime lenses and compared the results. All images were taken with flash with an ISO 100 at 1/125 second and all at f4. You should notice that the model stays a similar size in the frame when using a variety of focal length lenses, that was to create ‘real-life’ look to the test. I have taken the images as I would do normally regardless of focal length and they all appear here completely un-cropped.
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