The Lensbaby Circular Fisheye captures the entirety of the world in front of the lens in an extreme, curved perspective. It's not an effect that you'll want to use for every photo, but it's a fine example of a lens that many an artistic photographer likes to have available. It sets itself apart from other lenses of this type by removing an internal baffle, which adds a soft halo-like border to images. If you're a fan of fisheye lenses, it's worth adding to your gear bag, especially when you consider its reasonable $299.95 price.
The Circular Fisheye ($357.16 at Amazon) measures 3 by 2.75 inches (HD) and is light at just 10.5 ounces. The focal length is 5.8mm and maximum aperture is f/3.5. Regardless of which mount you choose, the aperture is controlled via a physical ring and can be narrowed all the way down to f/22. Likewise, focus is manual, but there's so much depth of field with a lens of this type that it's not difficult to nail focus. You do have some control over depth of field, but really only when focusing close. The lens can focus almost down to its front element, so you can get right up to your subjects if desired.
The field of view is 185°, which captures just a bit more than what's directly in front of the lens. Lensbaby has omitted an internal baffle that's usually used in circular fisheyes, which adds a soft halo border around images. It also promotes internal reflections, so you can force rainbow lens flares around the edges of the frame when shooting with a strong light source in view—and the field of view is so wide that it's tough not to include the sun in outdoor shots.
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The Circular Fisheye is sold for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony SLRs, as well as Micro Four Thirds, Samsung, and Sony mirrorless cameras. If you want to get the full circular frame complete with the border you'll need to shoot with a full-frame camera—but be aware that you'll end up cropping images a bit. I tested the lens with a pair of full-frame Nikon cameras, the D810 ($1,839.00 at Amazon) and the D4S ($4,799.95 at Amazon) , and found that setting the 1.2x crop mode was ideal. If you shoot with an APS-C camera you'll get the full image, but a portion of the border at top and bottom will be cropped. Micro Four Thirds shooters have to deal with an even smaller image sensor; on those cameras there will be some cropping of the circle at the top and bottom of the frame, but the horizontal field of view is fully realized. Lensbaby has an explainer page that shows what you can expect to get from the lens with each sensor size.
A fisheye lens can be a powerful artistic tool in the right hands. The Lensbaby Circular Fisheye goes a bit further than the run of the mill fisheye lens. Instead of filling the frame with a distorted image, it maps the world in front of you onto a sphere. When you add the close focus capability and the internal lens flares that you'll be able to create in the right conditions, you've got a lens that can spark your creativity. At just $300, it's a solid choice for anyone looking to capture photos with a unique perspective.
The Lensbaby Circular Fisheye captures distorted, circular images with a flare effect at the edge. It's not a lens for every occasion, but it can be a lot of fun to use.
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