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In The Know (14)
Posted by: Cane on 24th Mar 2011 in In The Know
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Images: lensbaby.com
Our occasional series where great design objects are described by those who know them best; their owners.
Photographer Lisa Wormsley gives us the inside view...
What is it? A Lensbaby Composer. lensbaby.com
Tell me more... It’s an American-made 50mm SLR camera lens. It has a simple manual barrel focus, but the immediate difference from normal lenses is that the body articulates on a ball and socket joint.
This delivers a shallow depth of field where only a small part of the image will be in focus. Very early photographic processes like daguerreotypes have this same very shallow depth of field. The result with the Lensbaby is an artistic effect which can give the appearance of movement to a static scene, or can pick-out your subject, throwing everything else out of focus.
The aperture is adjusted in a different way to normal lenses. Rather than an aperture ring, or adjusting digitally via the camera, there is a set of 7 discs from f2.8 to f22 that are swapped out manually. They are held in place inside the lens by a set of three magnets, and there is a small tool with another stronger magnet on which grabs them out.
Why did you buy it? I mainly photograph live music and was about to shoot at a festival where there would be a lot of competing photographers so I wanted something to differentiate. I saw the effects you could achieve online and I had ideas about possible new ways to make use of it.
About its looks? They’ve overhauled the design of what a ‘lens’ is, so it looks completely original.
It’s chunky with some matte silver finishes so it looks stylish and of a high value. It had a really nice dome-shaped lens cap until I left it on a speaker stack in Croatia.
The majority of lenses will have the branding painted around the front of the lens, usually in white on black. On the Lensbaby is it is etched onto the metal which looks original and quite modern, unfortunately the font of their logo is a bit too cuddly.
Most noticeably, it can be adjusted to be asymmetrical which looks odd so I’m often asked about it when I’m using it.
Technical advantages? It has a thick barrel focusing ring with nice big ridges of elastomer so it’s very tactile. You would otherwise normally just get this on longer lenses.
The lens cap that came with it was nice to look at, well-fitting and quick to take on and off.
The lens itself is set deep inside the casing so the glass is very well protected. During the time that the lens cap was lost, it wasn’t too much of a problem.
Emotional appeal? I have it with me always so it’s been through a lot in only a short time. Whilst taking promo shots of a band last year I dropped it two stories down a stairwell. It hit a chair then the ground but survived completely unharmed.
Could it be improved? It’s meant I’ve had to get used to manually focusing again, but maybe that’s a good thing.
Carrying the aperture discs and tool around is a bit of a hassle, although they’ve designed it to stow away very neatly, and the design of the case is like an old film can.
Not recommended for... Surveillance, archiving, crime-scene photographers; anyone where the camera is used for recording detailed information.
Shots taken by Lisa using Lensbaby Composer lens, all courtesy of indigoburns.com:
Goldie
High Voltage Festival
Gaslamp Killer
UFO
Oris Jay
Lisa Wormsley is a freelance photographer working mainly in the music industry. Her work has been widely exhibited, and recently published in Art Rocker, Paraphilia, Trap and Professional Photographer.
See more here
There are no comments. Be the first to post one.
Posted by: Cane on 24th Mar 2011 in In The Know
Images: lensbaby.com
Our occasional series where great design objects are described by those who know them best; their owners.
Photographer Lisa Wormsley gives us the inside view...
What is it? A Lensbaby Composer. lensbaby.com
Tell me more... It’s an American-made 50mm SLR camera lens. It has a simple manual barrel focus, but the immediate difference from normal lenses is that the body articulates on a ball and socket joint.
This delivers a shallow depth of field where only a small part of the image will be in focus. Very early photographic processes like daguerreotypes have this same very shallow depth of field. The result with the Lensbaby is an artistic effect which can give the appearance of movement to a static scene, or can pick-out your subject, throwing everything else out of focus.
The aperture is adjusted in a different way to normal lenses. Rather than an aperture ring, or adjusting digitally via the camera, there is a set of 7 discs from f2.8 to f22 that are swapped out manually. They are held in place inside the lens by a set of three magnets, and there is a small tool with another stronger magnet on which grabs them out.
Why did you buy it? I mainly photograph live music and was about to shoot at a festival where there would be a lot of competing photographers so I wanted something to differentiate. I saw the effects you could achieve online and I had ideas about possible new ways to make use of it.
About its looks? They’ve overhauled the design of what a ‘lens’ is, so it looks completely original.
It’s chunky with some matte silver finishes so it looks stylish and of a high value. It had a really nice dome-shaped lens cap until I left it on a speaker stack in Croatia.
The majority of lenses will have the branding painted around the front of the lens, usually in white on black. On the Lensbaby is it is etched onto the metal which looks original and quite modern, unfortunately the font of their logo is a bit too cuddly.
Most noticeably, it can be adjusted to be asymmetrical which looks odd so I’m often asked about it when I’m using it.
Technical advantages? It has a thick barrel focusing ring with nice big ridges of elastomer so it’s very tactile. You would otherwise normally just get this on longer lenses.
The lens cap that came with it was nice to look at, well-fitting and quick to take on and off.
The lens itself is set deep inside the casing so the glass is very well protected. During the time that the lens cap was lost, it wasn’t too much of a problem.
Emotional appeal? I have it with me always so it’s been through a lot in only a short time. Whilst taking promo shots of a band last year I dropped it two stories down a stairwell. It hit a chair then the ground but survived completely unharmed.
Could it be improved? It’s meant I’ve had to get used to manually focusing again, but maybe that’s a good thing.
Carrying the aperture discs and tool around is a bit of a hassle, although they’ve designed it to stow away very neatly, and the design of the case is like an old film can.
Not recommended for... Surveillance, archiving, crime-scene photographers; anyone where the camera is used for recording detailed information.
Shots taken by Lisa using Lensbaby Composer lens, all courtesy of indigoburns.com:
Goldie
High Voltage Festival
Gaslamp Killer
UFO
Oris Jay
Lisa Wormsley is a freelance photographer working mainly in the music industry. Her work has been widely exhibited, and recently published in Art Rocker, Paraphilia, Trap and Professional Photographer.
See more here
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