Lensbaby posted a new video three days ago showing the kind of images produced by its various optics and creative aperture discs. Among those shown in the clip are the combinations of the Double Glass Optic with Soft Focus Aperture, Soft Focus Optic with Soft Focus Aperture, Plastic Optic, Single Glass Optic plus Super Wide Angle Accessory and the Soft Focus Optic with Macro Filter.

Here’s the previous comparison of Lensbaby’s optics. Interesting? Get your Lensbaby from Amazon.

After months on backorder following its introduction in April this year, the Sweet 35 Optic is finally ready to ship, Lensbaby said. The specialty lens is the the first to feature an adjustable aperture as opposed to manually dropping the optical discs into the lens as is the case with other Lensbaby optics.

Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic

The Sweet 35 Optics matches best with the Composer Pro which is available in various mounts, including Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Micro 4/3rds.

This is taken with the Composer and the Double Glass Optic.

It’s about time someone comes up with cool ideas like this — making a camera shoot time-lapse photos and combining them without the need for any human interference, except in where to mount the camera on, what photos to shoot and pressing the switch on button. Everything else is done in-camera. How cool is that.

It has six default time-lapse settings: 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours and there is also one custom setting from 5 seconds to 12 hours.

Time-lapse camera

Buy the Digital Time-Lapse Camera at the Photojojo Store!

Lensbaby has updated its instructional videos page with a footage on how to shoot senior portraits by photographer Hollie True. Instructional videos like this are important because Lensbaby lenses aren’t the easiest to use. They are manual lenses in all sense of the word — you’d have to focus manually, and in the case of Lensbaby Composer, you’d have to manually insert the aperture disk into the lens.

This macro photo of a cactus was shot with Lensbaby Composer with double glass optic and two macro lenses stacked together. Edited using a Lomo action on Photoshop.

Sometimes, when shooting close-up photographs, you just want to magnify the subject a little bit more so that you can capture their intricate details. Often, even dedicated macro lenses won’t be able to achieve that. This is when you need a super macro conversion lens, such as the Raynox DCR-250.

Spider up close

The two pictures here — click on them to see a larger version — were taken with a Pentax K-7, Pentax D FA 100mm f2.8 Macro WR lens and a Raynox DCR-250 super macro conversion lens, which was attached to it.

Pentax 100mm WR plus Raynox DCR-250

For an even bigger magnification, a Raynox MSN-202 can be used, but because of the extreme magnification, it will be extremely difficult to focus with it, especially when the camera is hand-held.

Here’s a complete list of Raynox conversion lenses.

Not sure which Raynox super macro conversion lenses is suitable for you? Check out my brief report of the Raynox conversion lens system.

Addendum: the Raynox’s clip-on adapter is only compatible with the lens thread of between 52mm – 67mm.

Here’s how: just because you shoot with a Lensbaby because of the unique blur, and the sweet spot, doesn’t mean you have to try to shoot with the most blur you can possibly have with it.

Photos were taken around Brussels.

Lensbaby has launched its Senior Portrait Studio. Contrary to what people in my part of the world might think at first when seeing the word “senior,” the website is not about taking portraits of senior people. Senior portrait photography is about taking pictures of students at the beginning of their senior year of high school.

Fresh-faced and eager to live life, those in this age group make a perfect subject for the equally refreshing images taken with a Lensbaby.

Portraits by Lensbaby senior

I own a Lensbaby Composer and a Double Glass Optic. Dare I leave behind all other lenses and take only the Lensbaby to a wedding this weekend? I think I’ll give that a try.

Let’s admit it. DSLRs are superb at taking stills and videos but when it comes to recording audio, they don’t seem to be able to do justice to their visual prowess. So how do you resolve this?

One of them is by using the Zoom H4N DSLR audio kit. Available at B&H, the kit includes Zoom H4n four-track recorder, a windscreen, a Samson CH700 studio headphones, Transcend 4GB Class 6 SDHC card and a Pearstone male accessory shoe adapter. The price? US$369.99.

Amazon is also selling the Zoom H4N kit but at a slightly different set up. You’d have to purchase the hot shoe adapter separately. Zoom H4n Portable Digital Recorder Package with Samson SR-850 Professional Headphones (See all Digital Voice Recorders).

VariZoom Adjustable Swivel Shoe Mount, Accessory Shoe To 1/4×20 Thread for Mounting Video Monitors (See all Camera Flashes)

An interchangeable lens iPhone? Yes, it’s possible, thanks to the ingenuity of iPhone users worldwide who continue to challenge how far the phone can go. There have numerous attempts over the years to have the iPhone accepting lenses that one day Apple may just decide to design the smartphone as a true interchangeable lens camera phone.

The latest attempt, and perhaps among the most sensible solutions so far is by Olloclip. You can just clip the several types of lenses onto the iPhone, allowing you to shoot macro, wide-angle and fisheye photographs.

It’s not in the production yet, so you have to wait. However, you can pre-order it by backing up the project and pledge at least US$45.

iPhone macro ... Image credit: Olloclip

Okay, this seems obvious but you’ve got to do this to be safe — switch off your camera before taking the memory card out or you’ll end up losing whatever data in it. Most of us know this but it is always good to make a conscious effort to make sure the camera has been switch off before taking the memory card out.

I lost nearly 4GB of data recently after taking the card out of the Pentax K-7 without switching off the camera. And then the card became corrupted when I inserted it back, with the warning sign “Memory Card Error” being shown. I couldn’t even reformat the card in-camera.

I managed to save the memory card by reformatting it on a laptop computer.