Lensbaby announced the Circular Fisheye 5.8mm f/3.5 for MFT. Here is the official press release:
Lensbaby Circular Fisheye Lens 185-Degree View Sets New Standard for Creative-Effects Photographers/ Now Available in New Mounts for DSLRS
PORTLAND, OR–(Marketwired – Nov 24, 2014) – Lensbaby, providing lenses to creative-effects photographers that ignite their creativity and expand their unique visions of the world, today announced the availability of new mounts for the 5.8mm 185 degree Circular Fisheye lens. The company now offers the lens in Sony A and E, Micro Four Thirds, Samsung NX, Pentax K, Canon EF and Nikon F mounts. Launched to rave reviews in April, extreme sports photographers and Google Sphere shooters are among the growing number of serious hobbyists with crop sensor cameras bringing new life to wide angle shots using this unique lens.
Digital Trends noted that with the incredible 185-degree view, the Circular Fisheye lens is able to look slightly behind itself. The reviewer concluded that the lens creates a perfectly circular image with a spectacular panoramic view. Popular Photography also noted the extremely wide field of view as well as a reflective internal barrel, which produces interesting reflections, flares, and light spills in a halo around the main image.
Media Photo Gallery
http://lensbaby.com/cfe
The Circular Fisheye is great for capturing the scale of endless landscapes and big events, fun self-portraits, quirky shots of pets or friends, creating extreme perspective, and experimenting with unique lens flare. This manual lens has built-in aperture control ranging from f/3.5-22 and features an ultra-wide 5.8mm focal length. It is capable of capturing a 185 degree angle of view and focusing from 1/4 inch in front of the lens to infinity. That extreme close-focus paired with the incredibly wide 5.8mm focal length produces other-worldly distortion with exceptional sharpness throughout.
“Serious hobbyists and professional photographers need innovative photography products to stand out from the crowd, to be different and unique, to create something imagined,” said Craig Strong, Lensbaby Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer. “The Circular Fisheye furthers our mission to lead the market in developing innovative new products. We’re looking forward to being blown away by what photographers create with the most versatile fisheye lens ever made.”
Circular Fisheye lens
Specs and Features
5.8mm focal length
185º angle of view
f/3.5-22
Focus type: Manual
Polished internal barrel for creative flare & reflection outside the image circle
Focus distance scale & hyperfocal scale to aid in focusing
Available for Sony A and E, Micro Four Thirds, Samsung NX, Pentax K, Canon EF and Nikon F camera mounts
Size/Weight: 2.75″ (7cm) high x 3″ (7.6cm) wide / 10.5oz (298g)
Pricing
Circular Fisheye retails for $299.95 (MSRP). The lenses will be available in all mounts listed above beginning 11/28/14 through Lensbaby.com, B&H, Adorama and Amazon, and from select photo specialty stores worldwide.
About Lensbaby
For a decade, creative-effects photographers have relied on Portland, Oregon based Lensbaby to provide lenses that ignite their creativity and highlight their unique personalities. The company’s latest innovations transform a smartphone camera- LM-10 Sweet Spot lens, expand the Lensbaby ecosystem for optic swap-Sweet 50, and bring new life to wide angle shots for extreme sports photographers and Google Sphere shooters- Circular Fisheye. Lensbaby products are sold and distributed worldwide. Visit www.lensbaby.com
29 Responses
“…the Circular Fisheye lens is able to look slightly behind itself” – I have to get this!
Watch out for those toes
Good point – If I don’t use my Rokinon 7.5 for a while, I always end up getting my fingers in the frame. Probably run the risk of an entire selfie if I’m not careful w/ this one…
Hrmm… $300 for a plastic mount toy lens? Seems a bit steep. Could be fun to play with but, not at that asking price.
If that is really a plastic mount I wouldn’t pay over 100.
I also wonder if the circle is still a full circle on m43, because surely they didn’t produce a native m43 designed version.
looking at the sample images (http://lensbaby.com/sites/default/files/CFE_CraigStrong-01.jpg), there is some reserve around the image circle. Assuming that the images were shot using APS-C, i did a rough calc on what the size of the real image circle in mm would be and ended up with ~13mm. So imho chances are there that we will have a full circle even on mft.
Good work!
isnt LensBaby a USA company? western stuff is supposed to be priced accordingly.
$79
Yes! Finally!!!
You may wish to fix the gallery link
Its double size than samyang FE but 2mm wider.
Samyang is not a circular fisheye!
Many comments show clearly that many haven’t got a clue about (circular) fisheye lenses.
Like the comment that: “It’s double the size of a Samyang with just 2mm wider”
Epic.
Or it has a “plastic mount” so it shouldn’t cost more than …
Another Epic comment.
Sometimes this place (43rumors) is hilarious
Hmmm.. come on! You had a great opportunity here to post a totally epic comment. Or at least a hilarious one. Why didn’t you?
Well, how to educate wannabe gearheads that haven’t even got gear 😉
It’s also big because it isn’t an m43 exclusive and because retrofocal will always be big.
Oh my. While you could do some fun things with it, $300 for this when you can get the Samyang for $200 makes this just stupid given the lesser quality of the Lensbaby.
I would use it to take pics and put them inside Christmas balls. 🙂
WTF???
I’m having a lot of trouble keeping my fingers and feet off my photos with the Samyang 7.5mm :O
How do you such a lens? Always point it up???
Set it to infinity and hold it at arm’s length with one hand, or set it up on a tripod or place it on a ledge or something and set the auto-timer to 2 sec. Or put the camera on a selfie stick!
hmmm, I’d like a circular fisheye, I have a cctv lens 6mm which gives a circular fisheye effect but you have to use panasonic etc mode to get a decent size image in the viewfinder or crop the raw later. it only cost me £18 and is good enough to play around with. This would have to be a lot better and cheaper than asking price for me to bite
you can see my album of circular fisheyes from the cctv lens here https://www.flickr.com/photos/dweller/sets/72157631653041799/
Good album, thanks!
I wonder if the quality will be any good. Might be an option for panos.
Ive done some math, its not 185 degrees for MFT.
2*tan^-1(21.6/(2*5.8)) = 123.53 degrees in diagonal line
Wait thats if the diagonal covers the whole sensor, i am confused
if the image circle is 13mm its 2*tan^-1(13/(2*5.8)) = 96.5 degrees
As long as the full circle fits on the m43 sensor area (possibly it will, see logotomie’s comment + illustration below), you will be able to see the full 185 degrees.
As a matter of fact, if it does really fit, then you could say it’s actually a waste to use this lens on anything bigger than a m43 sensor….
dennebooms formula does not work for fisheye.
If i get this right then it depends how the lens is constructed. Based on
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/field_of_view.html
there are multiple ways to construct fisheye. If i use the most common, i get a 16.7mm circle for 185 degree – fits APS-C only. That would mean no luck for MFT.
The image linked in my other comment is then probably shot with a full frame camera.
Indeed lensbaby says it’s optimised for aps-c. I had started to think your earlier comment made sense, because that would be a good reason to produce this lens for m43. But selling a circular fisheye that doesn’t produce the full circle…?
Error ion the picture. It’s going to be that :
http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server2700/03ad6/product_images/attribute_rule_images/76_std_1415386112.jpg
Less tempting…