Lensbaby Circular Fisheye

Added another lens to my camera bag.  Years ago, I had an auxiliary fisheye lens (mounted to the primary lens) for my Canon film camera.  Fisheye lenses (optics) create some awesome imaged.  Many of my best were city scapes, looking upward.

E-mail from B&H Photo Video advertised a new fisheye lens from Lensbaby (best known for their tilt-shift lenses).  The lens is available with a Canon mount and priced at $300.00!  (OK, $299.95). Add in free shipping, I could not resist.

 

Some of particulars of the lens:  5.8mm circular fisheye,  aperture f/3.5 - 22,  185 deg view,  manual focus, compatible with APS-C and full frame sensors, focus from 0.25" to infinity.

Late yesterday afternoon, UPS delivered my toys (bought a couple other things while at it).  Had to check out my new lens.  Made a couple test shots in the front yard.

First thing I noticed was that the aperture adjustment is also manual.  It may be that my camera was set up for Aperture Priority. Taking a couple of test shots, the LCD monitor was showing artifacts/flares in the imaged (outside of the base circle).  I did not have this situation with the auxiliary lens. If this is what the specifications call as "creative flare effect" I thinks it detracts to the image.

Thinking that perhaps this might not show in processed image, I loaded my test shots into the computer.  Unfortunately, the "flare" is still there.  Did some research on the Lensbaby web site, all of their example images show the same effect.  It looks like I will need to create a mask for photoshop elements if I want to remove the flare effect.

Being 185 deg view, I need to be careful that my stomach does not show in the bottom of the image. Was a problem with most of my test shots.  The lower photo in the blog is one of my test shots taken yesterday afternoon.