Camera Dojo » lensbaby http://cameradojo.com CameraDojo brings you interviews with top photographers and industry leaders as well as tutorials and the latest in photography news. Wed, 23 May 2012 16:12:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Copyright © Camera Dojo 2011 kgarrison@gmail.com (Camera Dojo) kgarrison@gmail.com (Camera Dojo) 1440 http://cameradojo.com/images/DojoPodcast_144.png Camera Dojo http://cameradojo.com 144 144 CameraDojo brings you interviews with top photographers and industry leaders as well as tutorials and the latest in photography news. Camera Dojo Camera Dojo kgarrison@gmail.com no no Lensbaby Composer Pro Now Available for Samsung, Sony, Micro Four Thirds mirrorless mounts http://cameradojo.com/2012/04/02/lensbaby-composer-pro-now-available-for-samsung-sony-micro-four-thirds-mirrorless-mounts/ http://cameradojo.com/2012/04/02/lensbaby-composer-pro-now-available-for-samsung-sony-micro-four-thirds-mirrorless-mounts/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:41:20 +0000 KerryG http://cameradojo.com/?p=4931 Lensbaby Announces Availability of Composer® Pro for Mirrorless Cameras

Now the Composer Pro delivers ultra-smooth creative control for photographers with Micro 4/3rds, Sony α NEX and Samsung NX cameras too

Portland, OR – April 2, 2012 – Lensbaby announces its popular SLR creative effects camera lens, the Composer Pro, is now also available for Micro 4/3rds cameras (including Panasonic Lumix™ G Micro System and Olympus PEN®), Sony® α NEX, and Samsung NX cameras. The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap® System and ships with the Double Glass Optic installed.

The Composer Pro, launched in March 2011, refined and enhanced the popular and award winning Lensbaby Composer® by upgrading the swivel ball and focus mechanism to provide professional performance. The Composer Pro’s metal swivel ball design and refined focus mechanism deliver ultra-smooth focus and tilt control. The updated focus mechanism features a fluid and accurate dampened focus ring comparable to the focus mechanisms of the highest quality professional manual focus lenses. This smooth, fluid operation makes the Composer Pro the perfect choice for discerning professional photographers and videographers who want to create ground-breaking creative imagery – and now they can do so with their mirrorless cameras as well.

The Double Glass Optic, a 50mm f/2 selective focus optic, creates a Sweet Spot of sharp focus that photographers can move around the photo by tilting the Composer Pro’s swiveling lens body. The Composer Pro is compatible with the complete range of creative optics in the Lensbaby Optic Swap System including the Edge 80, Sweet 35, Fisheye, Soft Focus, Pinhole/Zone plate, Single Glass, and Plastic. Each optic can be swapped into the Composer Pro to deliver a different creative effect.

The Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras joins Lensbaby’s growing family of lenses, which now includes the Composer Pro for SLR cameras, Composer, Scout, Muse, and Control Freak.

“We’re excited to give mirrorless camera shooters full access to the Lensbaby Creative Effects system. With so many photographers opting for these smaller cameras for on-the-go shooting situations, our one lens with so many creative effect options will make a great addition to their set-up,” said Craig Strong, Lensbaby Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer.

Composer Pro for Mirrorless Cameras Specs:
Refined metal ball design delivers ultra-smooth focus and tilt control
Ships with the Double Glass Optic installed
Compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System
Focus Type: Manual
Size/Weight: 2.25″ (5.71cm) high x 2.5″ (6.35cm) wide / 4 oz (113.4g)
Tilt range of up to +/- 17.5 degrees

Double Glass Optic Product Specs:
Focal Length: 50mm
Low dispersion, high refractive index, multi-coated optical glass doublet
Aperture Type: Interchangeable, magnetic aperture disks
Apertures: f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22
Selective focus optic (creates a sweet spot of focus surrounded by gradual blur)
Focus distance when used with Composer Pro: 18″ to infinity
37mm front threads accept all Lensbaby accessory lenses
Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras is available now from Lensbaby-authorized photo specialty stores worldwide and from lensbaby.com. Composer Pro for mirrorless cameras retails for $300 MSRP.

]]> http://cameradojo.com/2012/04/02/lensbaby-composer-pro-now-available-for-samsung-sony-micro-four-thirds-mirrorless-mounts/feed/ 1 lensbaby Lensbaby Soft Focus and FishEye Lens First Impressions http://cameradojo.com/2009/12/19/lensbaby-soft-focus-and-fisheye-lens-impressions/ http://cameradojo.com/2009/12/19/lensbaby-soft-focus-and-fisheye-lens-impressions/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:29:25 +0000 KerryG http://cameradojo.com/?p=1771 Anyone who has been reading CameraDojo.com or listening to the podcast for a while should now that I might as well go to a meeting every week and say “Hi, My Name is Kerry, and I am a Lensbaby-aholic”. I absolutely LOVE my Lensbaby Composer and the Optic Swap system. When the folks at Lensbaby told me about their new Soft Focus and FishEye lenses, I begged them to get me some of the first off the assembly line. Lucky for me they arrived just as I was packing for a recent trip to New York.

This article is only going to be my first impressions of the lenses since I just got them and haven’t had a chance to use them in more diverse environments yet.

The Setup

For this initial use of the new lenses, I had a Canon 50D which has an APS-C lens so I don’t quite get the full effect of the FishEye lens, but still, it works quite well.

Unfortunately, the weather conditions weren’t ideal either since I had to brave 20 degree temps to walk around getting these shots (may not seem cold to some people, but I live in Southern California). With an overcast sky and snow on the ground, its not as if colors were popping as much as I would have liked, but you can’t beat a morning stroll through East Aurora New York in the morning, so off I went.

The Soft Focus Lens

Ok, this lens is NOT for everyone by any means, however, I absolutely love it! The soft focus lens diffuses the light coming into the lens by filtering through a series of small holes. The goal is not to create a completely defocused image, but to give it a softer quality. When I get home and get some more images, you will see how this can look with portraits. For now, I had limited subject matter to work with to demonstrate with.

The image here of the flower was the one shot I managed to snap off before throwing the camera in the suitcase and heading to the airport. While you can see plenty of detail, there is still a softness to it and the defocused background has a really beautiful look to it.

Here are some more shots with the soft focus lens:

Fish Eye Lens

A fish eye lens is another one of those lenses you don’t tend to keep on your camera much but when you need a REALLY wide angle, nothing can beat them. Since the Canon 50D does not have a full frame sensor you dont get a complete circular effect but the fish eye effect is still plainly visible. With some creative cropping and vignetting, you may not even realize a shot was taken with a fish eye.

Below is an example of a pre and post crop of the same image:

With a little cropping, the really distorted edges are far less noticeable.

Another thing you can do is use a fish eye to capture more of a scene than you could with a regular lens and then us Photoshop’s lens correction to straighten it out somewhat. The following images are before and after the lens correction was applied.

Here are some additional shots taken with the fish eye lens:

Summary

If you have a Lensbaby Composer or are thinking about getting one, the Fish Eye and Soft Focus lenses can be a terrific addition to your Optic Swap lens collection. Maybe they are even just the right excuse to go get a Composer now. For me, they are a very welcome addition to my collection and I cant wait to use them even more.

For more information, check out Lensbaby at http://www.lensbaby.com.

]]> http://cameradojo.com/2009/12/19/lensbaby-soft-focus-and-fisheye-lens-impressions/feed/ 4 optics IMG_9993 IMG_0006 IMG_0003 IMG_0005 IMG_0020 IMG_0010 IMG_0010-2 IMG_0016 IMG_0016-Edit IMG_0011 IMG_0018 IMG_0022 IMG_0024 Video: Using Live View Mode for Macro Shots http://cameradojo.com/2009/07/02/video-using-live-view-mode-for-macro-shots/ http://cameradojo.com/2009/07/02/video-using-live-view-mode-for-macro-shots/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:47:07 +0000 KerryG http://cameradojo.com/?p=1471 ringsOne of my favorite shots at a wedding is the ring shot or close-up shots of specific details. For these shots I love to use a Lensbaby Composer. With many DSLR’s it can be pretty tricky because of the warping action of the Lensbaby lens along with the small viewfinder and when using the super wide angle lens it just compounds the issue on macro shots. In the past, the best I could do was to get the focus as close as possible and then take a series of shots making slight changes to the focus each time.

With the Canon EOS 50D that I am using now life has become MUCH easier with the Live View mode and the ability to zoom into the image and just nail the focus. In this video, I demonstrate exactly how this process works.


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