Original Lensbaby

Hi everybody!

I got a roll of film developed for the first time in months and months. It feels amazing! I thought I'd have more time for hobbies after I finished my degree but working full time was kind of all-encompassing. I quit my day job so I'm just doing IATSE trainee work right now, which so far is working out. I'm still making enough to live off of (about the same, actually, when you average it over the time I'm not working as well) and I have some spare time to devote to the things I love. I finally have time to be 23!

Anyhoo, this roll of film was largely dedicated to testing out an original Lensbaby that I picked up at the Vancouver Camera Show and Swap Meet. It was $35... which I think is a pretty good deal. I didn't shop around but the new ones with all the digs are a few hundred, which is still really cheap for a lens but a big chunk to drop on something if you're not sure you're going to use it very much. They had it in a few mounts, but no Nikon or Canon so I got one with the PK mount, but it works out because I have this Pentax Z-50P that I wanted to try out, too.

Lensbabies were invented after the digital revolution. Their mucky operating style might be better with digital cameras where you can just delete the bad ones, but it's also fun with film because it's always fun with film. Ha!

But seriously, I think the soft plastic lens looks good with film. My T2i is pretty harsh with highlights and the like, so film is more forgiving with a weird exposure. This is good to keep in mind since the aperture on these lenses is kind of a bother to change. I shot a bunch with a 2.8 aperture plate, and then got stuck and had to change to a 5.6 because I was in pretty bright conditions. Some people recommend that you just leave in a 5.6 or 8 because the focus will be easier to nail and you won't have to fish out the plates as often. I say: do whatever you want! But be prepared to have your hands full changing those things when you're outside. Best to have a surface or a buddy to put stuff down on.

My verdict on the Lensbaby thing is: I'm glad I didn't drop a few hundred dollars on a newer model, because it really is just kind of a novelty and I don't think I'll use it very much. It might be nice to have one with an EF mount to use it on my T2i for video, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I've seen Lensbabies used a few times on TV shows and they can make it very cool but again, it's just for a couple of shots, and for very specific reasons. $300 is a lot for me, so I'll just stick with my $35 number.

The Pentax Z-50P, on the other hand, is a pretty nice film SLR, of course depending on what you want. It's pretty straight-forward & bare bones, but it has everything I need: manual mode or a shutter or aperture priority mode, and autofocus which is nice sometimes. It does have an annoying beep even when you're in manual focus mode to let you know that your picture's in focus, which is kind of a good feature but it just really pissed me off. You can turn this off but I didn't have my manual with me and it wasn't an obvious fix, so there ya go. I'll turn it off next time and then it should be problem free!

Photo time!

The best picture of Sky that I might ever take. That is one angry cat.

Taken on 800 ISO Superia, in East Van!

xoxoxo
CWB