Lensbaby

Lensbaby referred to as a generic term, a certain type of photographic lenses. There is also a trademark of the same company Lensbaby Inc., manufacturer and inventor of these lenses, the wide attention was in their perception among photographers.

As a generic term Lensbaby originally referred to a special lens with a focal length of about 50 mm. It basically consists of a bellows, which replaces the lens and at the end there are one or more lenses. Thus, the barrel of the lens is flexible. The tube can be stretched, compressed, and bent. With the help of these movements, the image is focused and determined the location of the focal point. As panels can be perforated discs that can be inserted into the optics. The aperture does not increase, unlike conventional lenses, depth of field, but broadens the focus point ( "sweet spot" ).

A shot with a Lensbaby lens image is sharp only in the area of the "sweet spot " around it takes the edge off and on. The location of the focus can be chosen freely by bending the lens. Furthermore, the lens, by tilting the lens with respect to the recording plane as a tilt - and -shift lens can be used similarly. The 2012 introduced " Edge 80 " insert features a traditional image performance and also is used as a tilt lens use.

Lensbaby lenses are used in creative photography. Some images arise rather spontaneously and go in the direction of Lomography. Due to the possibilities of selective focus in the "sweet spot" sophisticated compositions are made possible that would otherwise not be realized. The background lighting with the original Lensbaby ( " Muse" ) is influenced by the deformation of the lens with your hand so that the exact recording conditions of an image are difficult to reproduce. With the Control Freak, the Composer, and the Scout, there are also variants that allow fixation of the focus point / sweet spot and thus allow reproducible results. This makes the Lensbaby also for landscape and studio photographers for creative design element.

Objective of the company Lensbaby Inc.

The objectives of the company Lensbaby Inc. are now available for almost all popular camera systems. It offered a number of variants:

• The " Muse" (50 mm focal length), which is obtainable in two versions, with a single uncoated plastic lens or with a tempered glass two-lens optics.
• The " Control Freak " (50 mm focal length ) and the " muse ", but can also be fixed, and then fine tuned. From this lens, there are also medium format variants with focal lengths of 80 mm or 100 mm.
• The " Composer" (50 mm focal length) instead of the bellows has a ball joint.
• The " Composer Pro " similar to the composer, but with 35 mm focal length and particularly sensitive setting option.
• The " Composer with Tilt Transformer" specifically for Micro Four Thirds cameras and the NEX series from Sony. The adapter allows for tilt photography.
• The " Scout " is a fisheye lens with 12 mm focal length and fixed optics.

By using so-called "Optic swaps " ( interchangeable lenses ) can be realized a wide variety of soft-focus effects.