Cool Stuff

Turn your Lensbaby Composer into a fisheye lens with the Fisheye Optic, part of the Lensbaby Optic Swap System. The Fisheye Optic’s ultra-wide 12mm focal length captures an eye-popping fisheye view from infinity all the way down to one inch away. The Fisheye Optic is designed for use with the Composer, but can also be used with the Muse with the purchase of a special adapter.  The Fisheye Optic is not recommended for use with the Control Freak.

The Lensbaby Fisheye Optic features a system of interchangeable aperture disks, with possible aperture settings ranging from f/4 to f/22.  At f/4 the edges of Lensbaby Fisheye images will be soft. Stopping down to smaller apertures will increase edge sharpness.  At f/22 the entire image will be quite sharp.  

Due to the extremely wide angle of view, full frame shooters will generally see a black circle around almost the entire image, and APS-sized sensor shooters will see black at the corners of their images.  This black edge is typical for standard fisheye lenses.  However, the Lensbaby Fisheye Optic features a unique lens flare effect that causes the edge areas that would ordinarily be black to glow with color whenever there are bright light sources in the image.  This lens flare effect is particularly apparent when shooting with a full frame camera (see butterfly and fireworks images below).

The Fisheye Optic has a much flatter field of focus than previous Lensbaby Optics.  The images created by the Fisheye Optic are sharp throughout the image at darker apertures.  At brighter apertures there is some softening at the edges but not the Sweet Spot of sharp focus and dramatic blur that are trademarks of the Double Glass, Single Glass, and Plastic Optics.    Instead of bending the lens, photographers will typically point their Lensbaby straight ahead to achieve a classic fisheye look.
The Soft Focus Optic is part of the Lensbaby Optic Swap System, for use with Lensbaby’s Creative Effects SLR Camera lenses, the Composer, Muse, and Control Freak.  The Soft Focus Optic allows photographers to turn their Lensbaby SLR lens into a soft focus lens by swapping out the installed optic and dropping the new Soft Focus Optic into the lens.   

Fisheye Optic Product Specs:
• Focal Length: 12mm
• Six element multi-coated optical design
• f/4 optic with aperture disks that range from f/5.6 to f/22
• Focuses from one inch to infinity
• Removable disk aperture system
• To change aperture, unscrew top element of Fisheye Optic and remove with Aperture Tool.  The aperture disk sits atop the bottom element
• Special adapter must be purchased for use with Muse.  The Fisheye Optic is not recommended for use with the Control Freak

Recommended Lensbaby Accessories for use with Fisheye Optic:
• Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit Blanks (LBDAK)

More info: www.lensbaby.ca