Comments on: Review: The Lensbaby lens

By: stacey

stacey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:47:59 +0000

yay! great article! the lensbaby is so fab! i got it for christmas and thought it would be a fun novelty lens, but it’s hardly come off my camera since! i, too, was surprised by its versatality. i had seen loads of flower photos on flickr, but didn’t expect it to be so great for portraits or landscapes or night photography! it’s been really instructive for me as well, as it forces me to work entirely in manual settings and really learn how my camera deals with exposure. and it is definitely not the same as just applying blur in post-processing - it’s all about experimentation and unpedictability as you shoot. you never know what you’re going to end up with, and some of the colours, saturation and bokeh have been particularly - pleasantly - surprising

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:53:29 +0000

I love the way people say just use photoshop….what if you dont work in digtal and still use film and a real darkroom, and actually like to see your images printed.

By: Art community

Art community — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:20:31 +0000

Hmm…really interesting, but my vote is also for using PS or another type solution. That way you can experiment with different effects on one photo without ruining the original.

By: KGB

KGB — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:20:57 +0000

Ren Says:

February 25th, 2007 at 10:33

“dicking around in Photoshop”

hmm, disappointing.

By: Dave B

Dave B — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:30:50 +0000

I would have thought best use of this gadget would be a near to far plane of focus along a subject. The Vespa photo would have been ideal, but even this is quite blury at the close & far ends of the scooter compared to the middle. I would have thought the exact same picture, but with the entire scooter in focus would have been a good application of the abilities of this lens.

By: Ren

Ren — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 10:33:27 +0000

KGB - I suppose it’s for people who like making their pictures in their cameras rather than dicking around in Photoshop. ‘Tis exxy though, that I can definitely agree with.

By: KGB

KGB — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:18:56 +0000

But why shoot a picture that you can very easily do the same thing with in PS, AND still have a perfectly good “normal” shot to use as well.

Kind of like shooting with one of those special effects built into so many cameras, you’re trapped with that effect, for no particular reason.

And $270.00…….ouch…….for a gimmick lense.

Makes no sense.

By: Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Ferguson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:31:06 +0000

Hey Haje,

Do you find that it takes longer to adjust all your settings using the Lensbaby vs. manual settings adjustments with a normal lens?

That’s probably my biggest worry, since I do a lot of candid and street shots. Quite often, I find myself shooting in aperture priority because there’s a ‘too slow, it’s gone’ feel to street photography in the city.

By: drmauro

drmauro — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 11:46:59 +0000

here a big gallery of very good images…just using google: http://lensbabies.com/phorum/list.php?1

By: Matt Greer

Matt Greer — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 02:36:18 +0000

Great pictures, Haje. I’ve liked the idea of the lensbabies since I first heard of them, but haven’t seen very good examples before now. The crispness, contrast, and saturation in yours are much stronger than I’ve seen in most other LB work. Of course, (your) good images are more than the sum of their parts…

Your pictures remind me of my travels to Europe a few years ago (Madrid included) and brought back many great memories. Thanks!

If you’re interested, Lensbabies just introduced patterned aperture discs - dpreview link here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07021201lensbabykit.asp

I’ve been playing with pinhole photography (with my D70s) a bit lately, and while the results are fun and a little unpredictable, they’re a little too much for me. Your shots with the LB are the kind I wish I could get.

Thanks for the motivation and the inspiration.
Matt