Lensbaby

Hi there....

I bought a Composer Pro Kit with the Sweet 35 Optic last October 2011. I never regretted that purchase once! I have regretted some things about Lensbaby since, I'll get to that after posting some of my work here.

All of my work is post-processed with CS5. I do a lot of rather strange imaging anyway, and Lensbaby fits in well with my whole package.

I welcome your observations :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2012 11:25PM by kinlin.

so here's my greatest gripe:

I bought the Composer Pro in the USA while on a trip from Europe there. That was pretty good, I got a great deal! But I went back, as I tend to do, and wanted another optic. I went to a Lensbaby retailer in Los Angeles, and was told there that the aperture discs are not delivered with all optics, with some yes, but not all. After learning this I tried to find an optic with the discs (they are not part of the composer/sweet 35 package). In that same Los angeles retailer we opened about 25 different packages, none of which was on my shopping list, and only one of them, a fisheye, contained the desired discs. What kind of service is that?

And I originally understood from the Lensbaby website that i could purchase the wideangle/telephoto converter kit for my sweet 35, which i did do, but it doesn't fit, so I had to return, and then, although I LOVE my lensbaby, i thought this is ridiculous! but i did save some money, no optic, no kit.

i really did think there must be a system here. but where?

thanks for withstanding my day of blowing off lensbaby steam....

kinlin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2012 11:24PM by kinlin.

Love #2.

-annemari-

Kinlin,

Great images. Thanks for sharing.

I'm sorry about your issues finding an aperture kit for a future Lensbaby optic.

The Composer with Sweet 35 is our first Lensbaby that does not come with an aperture kit. Apertures are available as a separate item, necessary when you buy a non-internal-aperture/non-fisheye optic. It does not appear that the retailer you visited stocked them.

The apertures that come with the Fisheye are specific to the Fisheye so the standard kit of apertures, that is delivered with all of the Lensbaby lenses (body/optic combos), will not work with the Fisheye optic.

Are you still in the US? If so, please send me an email at craig (at) lensbaby dot com or call our main number which is 971.223.5662 and we will ship you what you need today.

Craig

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

Hi kinlin and welcome to the forum--

Sorry to hear about your frustrations.
I do not own the Sweet 35 or Composer Pro, so I cannot speak from experience with that setup, but I've been banging around her for a little while, so....

First of all, a few clarifications:

1) Lensbaby only supplies the apertures and aperture tool with their Lens Bodies (Composer, Composer Pro, Muse, or Control Freak) with the Double Glass Optic installed (that's the standard optic). Lensbaby does not ship the aperture tool and apertures with any of their optics except the Fisheye but the fisheye uses a different set of apertures from the rest of the line of optics (I'm afraid the retailer was mistaken on two counts there).

2) The Aperture Tool (with apertures) is available by itself direct from this website or you can probably find one on ebay for a decent price.

3) Any of the accessories offered by Lensbaby are for use with any of the optics other than the Sweet 35. Sorry if you misunderstood that from the website.

Don't know about any difficulties you might run into with international shipping and/or tax/trade laws where you are (i.e. I don't know if you could deal directly through the LB website), but I can tell you that Lensbaby's customer service is second to none. If you contact kirsten@lensbaby.com , I'm sure that she will do everything she can to help you.

I sincerely hope this helps, don't get discouraged and keep shooting,

Johnny Crabcakes

"Failure is the key to success;
Each mistake teaches us something."
--Morihei Ueshiba

Whoops! Looks like Craig types faster than I do...he beat me to it...and explained it better than I could....

Johnny Crabcakes

"Failure is the key to success;
Each mistake teaches us something."
--Morihei Ueshiba



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 03:38AM by Crabcakes.

I have to say I have fantastic service from lensbaby US.
I would have not expected disc's with the sweet 35 combo seen it has aperture built in .
Also when I have bought some other items from the lensbaby site I bought an extra set of aperture's as a back up if I drop & lose any as I had to have them shipped here to Australia .
From USA to Australia great service Lensbaby .
Kilin your work look's great.
Regards Malcolm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 06:55AM by hebphoto.

Thanks to both of you for your educating responses. I didn't find anything on ebay, and I'm now back in Germany again, so I checked the Lensbaby Webstore. The following items are now in my shopping cart:

1x Replacement Magnetic Aperture Set
1x .42X Super Wide Angle Conversion Lens
1x Double Glass Optic

I don't want to appear slow, but I would like to understand that the double glass optic and the super wide angle conversion lens are indeed compatible, before going through with this order.

I might still get a decent deal (purchasing in $ instead of €, if I can somehow sneak all this past customs) :-D

kinlin

ps...thanks Malcolm (I love praise!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 07:02AM by kinlin.

Yes, the Super Wide and the Double Glass are compatible.

With the Double Glass you are going to get nearly the exact effect of the Sweet 35 but with a longer focal length and a more variable sweet spot (at darker apertures, more is in focus).

The Super Wide adds a lot of chromatic aberrations to the out of focus area and puts you at ~21mm. The image circle when using the Super Wide is just bigger than a full frame sensor so tilting gets a black partial vignette when tilting past 2 or 3 degrees (tilt on the Composer Pro is 17.5 degrees).

My all-time favorite combination of optics, though very specialized, is the pinhole/zone plate with the Super Wide.

Considering the similar price (I'm assuming that you are wanting a very different effect than the Sweet 35, not just a different focal length), I would recommend the the Optic Kit with Single Glass, Plastic and Pinhole/Zone Plate optics plus the Super Wide Angle accessory lens.

Craig

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

Thanks Craig! I followed your advice, your assumption was indeed correct, and placed an order with the Optic Kit instead of the Double Glass. Once this arrives, I think everything Lensbaby should start to be quite interesting.

I must say, my adventure in Lensbaby proved to be quite fruitful today. Thank you so much!

kinlin

PLUS a replacement aperture kit.

The Soft Focus replacement aperture kit comes with three multi-hole aps plus all of the aps in the standard replacement aperture kit. The multi-hole aps are fun for different bokeh effects among other creative uses.

Enjoy.

Craig

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

Glad to help.