Lensbaby

Lensbaby LLC

See in a new way
Type	Private
Industry
Founded	Portland, Oregon, U.S. (2004 (2004))
Founder	Craig Strong Sam Pardue
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Area served	United States 35 + Countries
Key people	Craig Strong (CCO) Greg Sharp (GM)
Products	DSLR lenses, Mirrorless lenses, optics
Number of employees	40 (Aug 3, 2012)
Website	www.lensbaby.com

Lensbaby is a line of camera lenses for SLR cameras that combine a simple lens with a bellows or ball and socket mechanism for use in special-effect photography. A lensbaby can give effects normally associated with view cameras. The lenses are for use in selective focus photography and bokeh effects.

Lensbaby lenses can be used with most cameras that accept interchangeable lenses, mainly DSLR, SLR, mirrorless, 35mm film and PL mount motion cameras.

The focus front standard can be manipulated off axis to move the sharpest area of Focus (called the "sweet spot") to almost anywhere in the frame. This allows the important part of the subject to be rendered fairly sharp with everything else out of focus, even if it is the same distance from the camera. The Lensbaby naturally focuses at approximately 2 feet; closer focus is achieved by pushing the front of the lens out, and infinity focus is achieved by pulling the front of the lens toward the base of the lens. There is extreme spherical and some chromatic aberration outside the central "sweet spot". Lensbaby lenses have no electronic components, disabling auto-focus when mounted on modern cameras. The use of auto-focus is further undermined by the spherical aberration in the lens. In most cases Lensbaby lenses require aperture priority or fully manual mode. The Lensbaby can also be used for infrared photography, but does not include an index mark for infrared photography.