Lensbaby is a line of camera lenses for DSLR and mirrorless cameras that combines a simple lens with a bellows/ball and socket mechanism for use in special effect photography. A Lensbaby can give effects normally associated with view cameras. The lenses are for use in selective focus photography and bokeh effects.[2][3]
The focus front standard can be manipulated off axis to move the sharpest area of focus (called the "sweet spot") to almost anywhere in the frame. This allows the important part of the subject to be rendered fairly sharp with everything else out of focus, even if it is the same distance from the camera. The Lensbaby naturally focuses at approximately 2 feet; closer focus is achieved by pushing the front of the lens out, and infinity focus is achieved by pulling the front of the lens toward the base of the lens. There is extreme spherical and some chromatic aberration outside the central "sweet spot".[6] Lensbaby lenses have no electronic components, disabling auto-focus when mounted on modern cameras. The use of auto-focus is further undermined by the spherical aberration in the lens. In most cases, Lensbaby lenses require aperture priority or fully manual mode. The Lensbaby can also be used for infrared photography, but does not include an index mark for infrared photography.
History
Craig Strong, a professional photographer from Portland, Oregon, invented the first Lensbaby lens[7] by combining a vacuum cleaner hose body and a large format speed graphic lens. Strong redesigned the original prototype. He then partnered with entrepreneur Sam Pardue to form Lensbabies, LLC. The Original Lensbaby was launched in 2004 at the WPPI tradeshow. Images taken with the Original Lensbaby featured a 'sweet spot' of sharp focus surrounded by directional blur. This effect was achieved through the use of a single element lens. The Original Lensbaby used interchangeable drop-in apertures held in by a rubber o-ring.[8]
In 2005, Lensbaby released the Lensbaby 2.0, an upgrade to the Original Lensbaby which featured a sharper, brighter optic, creating greater contrast between areas of blur and sharpness. The Lensbaby 2.0 used interchangeable aperture disks that levitated in front of the optic using magnets.[9]
In 2006 Lensbaby introduced the Lensbaby 3G, which used a threaded rod system in combination with a locking mechanism to allow the flexible lens body to be locked into place for repeatable results.[10]
In 2007, the Lensbaby 3GPL was launched, allowing cinematographers to use Lensbaby lenses on motion picture cameras.
Lensbaby Composer (front) with three Optics in plastic storage cases; L-R: Pinhole / Zone Plate (pink), Single Glass (yellow), Plastic (blue)
In 2008, Lensbabies was renamed to Lensbaby and released the Optic Swap System, a modular design that included three lens bodies, the Composer, Muse and Control Freak;[16] each lens body accepted one of four (at the time of release) interchangeable optics. The Muse featured flexible bellows and was similar in design to the Lensbaby 2.0. The Control Freak was an update on the Lensbaby 3G. The Composer introduced a new ball and socket design, which allowed the user to swivel the lens to move the sweet spot, along with a focusing helicoid.[17][18]
Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass Optic (green ring) and drop-in Waterhouse stops
Concurrently, four interchangeable optics were released with the three lens bodies: Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, and Pinhole / Zone Plate.[19] The Double Glass is the multicoated glass doublet from the Lensbaby 2.0 and 3G. The Single Glass is based on the single, uncoated glass lens from the Original Lensbaby, but faster. The Plastic is a single plastic lens designed to be reminiscent of Holga and Diana cameras. All three lenses have a focal length of 50mm. The Pinhole / Zone Plate can be toggled between a f/177 pinhole and f/19 zone plate.[17]
In 2009, Lensbaby released two more optics: Soft Focus and Fisheye.[20]
In 2010, Scout, the first "straight" Lensbaby lens body which could not be tilted, was released. It included the 12mm Fisheye optic.[21] The Composer with Tilt Transformer also was released in 2010. The Tilt Transformer was an adapter that allowed Micro 4/3 and Sony NEX cameras to use lenses with Nikon F mount, combined with a ball-and-socket joint to enable traditional Lensbaby tilting effects, while the combined Composer with Tilt Transformer included a focusing helicoid that mounted on the Tilt Transformer and accepted Optic Swap System lenses with a 37mm filter. The Composer with Tilt Transformer shipped with an additional, front-mounted optic adapter which changed the focal length by 0.8× to 40mm and allowed the system to focus to infinity.[22]
In 2011, Composer Pro, an upgraded version of the Composer, was released.[23] Composer Pro was sold with the Sweet 35 optic, a "sweet spot" selective focus optic. Sweet 35 was the first Lensbaby optic to feature internal apertures.[24] It was followed in 2012 by another optic with internal apertures, the Edge 80 optic. The Edge 80 optic produced a slice of sharp focus surrounded by smooth blur, similar to the effect created by a tilt-shift lens.[25] For the entry-level market, Lensbaby introduced the all-plastic Spark in 2012; it has features similar to the Muse, bundled with a fixed-aperture glass doublet f/5.6 lens,[26] and is compatible with other optics.[27]
Despite the introduction of standalone lenses in 2014 and 2015, Lensbaby has continued to update the modular Optic Swap System. In 2015, Lensbaby released the Composer Pro II with a metal body and the Edge 50 optic, with features similar to the Edge 80 but with a shorter focal length.[28] The Twist 60 was announced in 2016, featuring Petzval-like "swirly" bokeh.[29]
The Sweet 80 and Creative Bokeh optics were released in 2017.[30] The Edge 35, another "edge" optic with a sharp focus slice, was added in 2019.[31]
In 2020, Lensbaby released the Spark 2.0, an updated lens body for the Optic Swap System similar to the Muse and original Lensbaby.[32] Two updated optics followed in 2021 (Obscura 50) and 2022 (Soft Focus II). Obscura 50 has selectable pinhole (f/161), zone plate (f/32), and pinhole sieve (f/64) openings equivalent to a focal length of 50mm.[33] Soft Focus II takes the same magnetic aperture discs as the original Soft Focus, but combines that with an internal iris diaphragm.[34] The Double Glass II (2023) features similar upgrades, adding an internal diaphragm and changing the body to metal.[35]
Standalone lenses
In a departure from its previous mount-plus-optic modular system, in 2014 Lensbaby introduced the Circular Fisheye lens, which was a complete, stand-alone lens in a single unit.[36] In addition, Lensbaby also introduced the LM-10 that year, a "sweet spot" lens attachment for smartphones,[37] funded through the Kickstartercrowdsourcing platform.[38] The LM-10 was later sold in a bundle with LM-20 (larger sweet spot) and LM-30 (multi-image filter) attachments.[39]
In 2015 Lensbaby introduced another complete lens, the Velvet 56, a 56mm lens capable of 1:1 macro.[40] This lens featured a singlet-doublet-singlet optical design the company claimed evoked the optical imperfections of lenses manufactured in the mid-1900s. By intentional incorporation of spherical aberration, the lens also provides a soft focus effect, more at larger apertures and less as the lens is closed down.[41]
As a hybrid between the fully modular Optic Swap System and the standalone line, Lensbaby introduced the Trio 28 in 2016, which featured a non-interchangeable turret that could be switched between one of three 28mm lenses, each with a different effect (Sweet, Velvet, and Twist).[42]
The Velvet 85 was launched in 2017, featuring the same "velvet" soft focus effects as the Velvet 56 in a classic portrait focal length.[43] A standalone Velvet 28 followed in 2020.[44]
In 2018, Lensbaby announced the Burnside 35, a wide-angle lens using a Petzval design and a secondary aperture to control vignetting and special effects,[45] and the Sol 45, a "more restrained package" with features similar to the Composer Pro and a centering lock to eliminate tilt.[46] The Sol 22 followed in 2019, with features similar to the Sol 45 but with a reduced focal length of 22mm, exclusively for Micro Four Thirds system cameras.[47]
A standalone Obscura 16 lens was launched for mirrorless cameras in 2020, simultaneously with the Obscura 50 Optic. Like the Obscura 50, the Obscura 16 includes selectable pinhole (f/90), zone plate (f/22), and pinhole sieve (f/45), at an equivalent focal length of 16mm.[33] In 2024, Lensbaby added the Sweet 22, its widest lens to date.[48]
Products
Lens bodies
Lensbaby lenses mount directly onto SLR or mirrorless camera bodies. They have interchangeable drop in optics. Currently the lineup of lenses come with an optic installed.
Composer Pro The Composer Pro lensbody operates on a ball and socket and allows photographers to use selective focus on a tilted plane.[61][62] This lens body comes with either a 50mm multi-coated optical glass doublet with drop in aperture,[63] 35mm 4 multi-coated glass optic with 12-blade adjustable aperture[64] or with Edge 80 Optic with 80mm focal length.
Spark
Lensbaby Spark
The Spark is the newest iteration of the Original Lensbaby. It contains a fixed 5.6 aperture optic and uses selective focus to create a center of focus surrounded by gradually increasing blur. It comes in either a Canon EF or Nikon F mount.[58]
Muse The Muse has a design similar to the Original Lensbaby and the 2.0. Its simple design consists of an interchangeable optic attached to a flexible tube bellows. The user both focuses and moves the area in focus by squeezing and bending the lens. It does not hold position and requires the photographer to maintain the focus manually.[65] The Muse is available with a multi-coated glass optical doublet installed, and comes with f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, and f/8 aperture disks. It is compatible with 35mm cameras and PL mount.[56]
Lensbaby Scout installed with Fisheye Optic
Scout The Scout does not have selective focus control and is intended for use as a traditional fisheye lens with a very close minimum focus distance.[57]
Optics
Lensbaby produces several different interchangeable drop in optics. Each optic has a varied effect, ranging from a sharp slice of focus, soft focus to pinhole photography.
Edge 80 The Edge 80 is an 80mm drop-in optic with adjustable aperture. Its aperture ranges from f/2.8-f/22 and it has a flat field of focus. The minimum focusing distance of this optic is approximately 17 inches when the optic is extended forward and fully tilted. Its maximum focusing distance is infinity. The Lensbaby Macro Converters screw on in between the optic and lens, it is incompatible with current 37mm Lensbaby accessories.[80]
Sweet 35 The Sweet 35 is a 35mm drop in optic with adjustable aperture. Its aperture ranges from f/2.5−f/22 with a selective spot of focus. It focuses approximately 7.5" to infinity from the front of the optic. The Lensbaby Macro Converters screw on in between the optic and lens, it is incompatible with current 37mm Lensbaby accessories.[68]
Soft Focus The Soft Focus is a 50mm drop in optic with swappable aperture disks that range from f/2 up to f/22.[76]
Fisheye The Fisheye is a 12mm drop in optic with swappable aperture disks that range from f/5.6 to f/22. This optic has a 160 degree of view and focuses from .5" from the front of the optic to infinity.[66]
Double Glass The Double Glass is a 50mm drop-in optic with magnetic swappable aperture disks. The lens glass is a low dispersion, high refractive index, multi-coated optical glass doublet.[69]
Optic Kit The Optic Kit contains three separate drop-in optics with four separate effects.
In addition to its modular Optic Swap System line, Lensbaby has produced standalone, manual focus lenses since 2014 which include the optics, focusing mechanism, and mechanical lens mounts in a single, integrated unit.[36] Many of these also are equipped with a manual iris diaphragm.
Lensbaby sells wide angle, telephoto and macro adapters that screw onto the 37mm threads. In March 2011, Lensbaby introduced seven optics that a user can swap into and out of any of the in-production Lensbaby lenses[99] Among the new products was a plastic optic capable of producing the distortion and chromatic aberration familiar to Holga and LOMO users, a fisheye lens, a pinhole for infinite depth of field, zoneplate optic for very soft-focus effects, and an uncoated glass singlet.[99]
Macro Converters The Macro Converters are a set of two extension tubes which fit between the optic and the mechanical body. One tube is 8mm, and the other tube is 16mm; they may be stacked together to make a 24mm tube.[100][101] Depending on the optic, the 8mm converter allows a user to focus from 0"-8.13" while the 16mm lets a user focus from 2.25"-6", when stacked they become a 24mm converter which allows a user to focus from 1.63" to 5".
↑ Measured from front of the optic to subject in photo
↑ Measured from front of macro lens to subject in photo
Accessory Kit The Lensbaby Accessory Kit contains four accessories that at one point were sold separately but now (with the exception of the Creative Aperture Kit) are limited to purchase in a kit.
Macro Lenses
+4 lens
+10 lens
0.46x Wide Angle Converter
1.6 Telephoto Converter
Creative Aperture Kit
Each item in the kit is compatible with all Lensbaby optics except for the Sweet 35, Edge 80, Spark and Pinhole/Zone Plate. [103]
Creative Aperture Kit The Creative Aperture Kit are disks that drop into Lensbaby's all non-adjustable aperture optics. The kit is sold as either pre-cut shapes (birds, diamonds, heart, dripsplat, slots, star, swirly, sunburst, whirlpool) or blanks. [104]
0.42x Super Wide Angle The 0.42x Super Wide Angle converter screws onto the 37mm threads of most Lensbaby optics except for the Sweet 35, Edge 80, Spark and Pinhole/Zone Plate. The converter also has 52mm threads for 52mm filters and step up rings. [105]
Step Up/Shade The Step Up/Shade was created to fill the gap of Lensbaby lenses incompatibility with standard step-up rings. This Step Up/Shade is 37-52mm and will fit on any of Lensbaby's 37mm threaded optics and allows for any 52mm filter to be screwed onto the front of the Step Up/Shade. [106]
Discontinued products
Original Lensbaby The Original Lensbaby is a flexible camera lens that creates an image that has an area of sharp focus surrounded by graduated blur. The lens is the initial springboard for the products to follow, the initial principal of shifting in the in-focus area by bending the flexible lens tube in any direction.
The 2.0 is the second generation of Lensbaby lenses, it improved on the initial design of the Original Lensbaby by adding additional apertures and improvement in the optical glass doublet.
The Lensbaby 2.0
'Specs of the 2.0'
Coated, high refractive index, low dispersion optical glass doublet
3G The 3G is a third generation selective focus SLR lens from Lensbaby. It is an upgraded version of the 2.0 with additions of three focusing rails that emerge from the camera mount and pass through the focusing collar. There is a trigger button on the focusing collar that releases three pins that engage the focusing rails and lock the 3G in a bent position. Once the lens is locked in place, additional fine focus can be achieved by turning the barrel focusing ring which moves the optic in and out like a normal manual focus lens. While the lens is locked the three focusing rails can be adjusted to move the sweet spot around the image.
Specs of the 3G
Coated optical glass doublet (the same optic as Lensbaby 2.0)
Control Freak The Control Freak was modeled after the 3G, the lens allows the user to compress and bend the lens and then lock it in place once the desired focus is achieved. Once in locked position the focus can be adjusted with the three posts and the barrel focusing ring.
Specs of Control Freak
Drop-in Double Glass optic
Manual/Fingertip Focus
Drop in aperture disks (f/2-f/22)
Minimum Focus from 9"(23cm)
Maximum Focus to infinity
2.25"(5.7cm) x 2.5"(6.35cm), 3.7oz(104.9g)
Composer
The Composer was the first Lensbaby lens to feature a ball-and-socket style body coupled with a manual barrel focus. Unlike the original design, the lens stays in position with a locking ring around the base.[110]
Lensbaby Composer with its aperture disks
The Composer's stability also allows for the long exposures usually needed for pinhole photography.
Lensbaby lenses are compatible with a variety of products and are sold with various third party mounts. The chart below visualizes the available combinations of Lensbaby lenses and third party camera bodies in existence.
In order to use a Lensbaby with your digital video camera, you will need to use an adapter. The following companies make adapters which have been tested and used successfully with a Lensbaby: P+S Technik, Redrock M2, Brevis35, Letus35 and SGpro. To use an adapter with the PL mount Lensbaby, you will need to choose an adapter that will attach to your camera (has the correct thread size, for example 72mm or 82mm) and features a PL Mount on the other end. You can also use an adapter with a digital video camera and an SLR mount Lensbaby; in this case you will need to choose an adapter that will attach to your camera and features an SLR (for example, Nikon) Mount on the other end.
The Lensbaby Optic Swap system makes it possible to change the look and feel of digital images by changing out the optic instead of the lens. With the exception of the Sweet 35 and Edge 80 optics, the optic swap tool which is included with every optic as the lid of the optic case. The tool must be aligned with the notches of the optic and twisted counterclockwise to remove the optic. The Sweet 35 and Edge 80 optics are inserted by aligning them with the dot on the lensbody and twisting it into the locked position. To remove them, push the optic into the lensbody and turn to release it.
Lensbaby products vary in the effects they produce, the table below illustrates the diversity of creative options that can be obtained when using the Lensbaby system.
Tilt
Sweet Spot of Focus
Swirly bokeh
Slice of Focus
Fisheye
Pinhole/Zone
Macro
Soft Focus
Toy
Creative Aperture
Composer Pro, Muse, Spark, Composer*
Sweet Optics (35, 50, 80), Double Glass Optic, Plastic Optic, Single Glass Optic, Sol (22, 45) Lenses
Twist 60 Optic, Burnside 35 Lens
Edge Optics (35, 50, 80)
Fisheye Optic
Pinhole/Zone Plate
Macro Kit, Macro Converters, Fisheye Optic, 0.42x Super Wide Angle
Velvet (28, 56, 85) Lenses, Soft Focus Optic
Plastic Optic, Single Glass Optic
Creative Aperture Kit
*Discontinued
Selective focus
Most Lensbaby products utilize a technique called selective focus. With a traditional lens, this technique[113] requires coming close to the photograph's subject and opening the camera lens to a wide aperture. This gives a shallow depth of field and creates a look where the main subject is sharp and everything in the front and back of it is blurred. With Lensbaby lenses and optics the selective focus becomes moveable and acts as a spot of focus on one main object, and unlike traditional techniques, objects at the same DOF will also be out of focus if so desired by the user.[114]
Example of selective focus
Sweet Spot versus Slice
With the exception of the Soft Focus optic, Fisheye optic, Edge optics and Pinhole/Zone Plate, Lensbaby products traditionally create a sharp round spot of focus with a ring of blur that transcends. The Edge optics creates a different effect similar to a traditional tilt shift lens DOF. The Edge creates a moveable, linear 'slice' of focus which transcends typical DOF and creates sharp focus from edge to edge in a slice of an image while blurring out the rest of the image.[115]
Creative apertures
Playing off of the utilization of drop in apertures that The Original Lensbaby started, Lensbaby released the ability to create custom drop in apertures. Traditional aperture disks came standard with different sized holes cut into the center, which could be swapped out with a magnetic aperture tool. Because of this the ability to add customized disks was a natural progression of the original concept. Lensbaby offers precut disks in various shapes that had been selected in a contest. Current shapes offered in the custom kit are; swirl, birds, sunburst, splat, flower, heart, star, waves, slats. Blank disks are also still offered at this time by the company.[116]
Tilt
With the exception of Scout and the stand-alone lenses, Lensbaby allow photographers to tilt the lens moving the selective focus spot around to the desired location. Unlike a tilt shift lens, Lensbaby does not shift perspective, but simply changes the plane of focus. [117]
In movies and TV shows
Lensbaby products have been used in the following films, television shows.
In optics, the aperture of an optical system is a hole or an opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image of the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that comes to a focus in the image plane.
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture —effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect. The size of the images depends on the distance between the object and the pinhole.
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.
The Holga is a medium format 120 film camera, made in Hong Kong, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.
A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong visual distortion intended to create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image. Fisheye lenses achieve extremely wide angles of view, well beyond any rectilinear lens. Instead of producing images with straight lines of perspective, fisheye lenses use a special mapping, which gives images a characteristic convex non-rectilinear appearance.
Sigma Corporation is a Japanese company, manufacturing cameras, lenses, flashes and other photographic accessories. All Sigma products are produced in the company's own Aizu factory in Bandai, Fukushima, Japan. Although Sigma produces several camera models, the company is best known for producing high-quality lenses and other accessories that are compatible with the cameras produced by other companies.
A toy camera is a simple, inexpensive film camera.
For an interchangeable lens camera, the flange focal distance (FFD) of a lens mount system is the distance from the mounting flange to the film or image sensor plane. This value is different for different camera systems. The range of this distance, which will render an image clearly in focus within all focal lengths, is usually measured to a precision of hundredths of millimetres, and is not to be confused with depth of field.
The Pentax K-mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK-mount", is a bayonet lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1975, and has since been used by all Pentax 35 mm and digital SLRs and also the MILC Pentax K-01. A number of other manufacturers have also produced many K-mount lenses and K-mount cameras.
In photography, soft focus is a lens flaw, in which the lens forms images that are blurred due to uncorrected spherical aberration. A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration which blurs fine texture in the image while retaining sharp edges across areas of high contrast; it is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and the effect cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a sharp lens. Soft focus is also the name of the style of photograph produced by such a lens.
Tilt–shift photography is the use of camera movements that change the orientation or position of the lens with respect to the film or image sensor on cameras.
An ultra wide-angle lens is a lens whose focal length is shorter than that of an average wide-angle lens, providing an even wider view. The term denotes a different range of lenses, relative to the size of the sensor in the camera in question.
The Samsung NX-mount is the lens mount used on NX series mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras by Samsung. The mount was first implemented in the Samsung NX10, and Samsung initially referred to the NX line as 'hybrid digital cameras', citing their combination of attributes of both DSLR and compact cameras.
The Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC is Samyang's ultra wide angle prime lens for the 35 mm film format. It replaces the shortly sold Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical.
The Fujifilm X-mount is a lens mount for Fujifilm interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras in its X-series, designed for 23.6mm x 15.6mm APS-C sensors.
The Samyang 8mm F3.5 UMC Fish-Eye CS II is a fisheye photographic lens using the stereographic projection and is designed for crop factor APS-C DSLRs. It is made in South Korea by Samyang Optics and marketed under several brand names besides Samyang, including Bower, Falcon, Polar, Pro-Optic, Rokinon, Vivitar and Walimex Pro. There are versions for the Canon EF, Fujifilm X, Nikon F, MFT, Pentax K, Samsung NX, Sony E, Sony α/Minolta A mounts.
The Canon RF lens mount is an interchangeable-lens mount developed by Canon for its full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras, and featured first by the EOS R, followed by the EOS RP. The RF mount was announced in September 2018. In May 2022, Canon announced APS-C EOS R cameras and RF-S lenses designed for these cameras.
↑ USPatent 8075201B2,Craig C. Strong; Samuel L. Pardue& Mark Prattet al.,"Movable lens systems and associated methods",published December 13, 2011, assigned to Lensbaby LLC
↑ "Wenn kreative Funken sprühen"[When creative sparks fly...]. lensbabies.de (in German). Archived from the original on December 9, 2004. Lensbabies sind für digitale und analoge Kameras mit Nikon- oder Canon-EOS-Bajonett (Brennweite ca. 50 mm) sowie für Minolta, Pentax, Olympus, Contax, Canon FD und M42 (Brennweite ca. 65 mm) erhältlich.
↑ USPatent 8717693B2,Craig C. Strong; Samuel Pardue& William McDonough,"Movable lens assembly and associated methods",published May 6, 2014, assigned to Lensbaby LLC
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
