With the OMNI Creative Filter System, Lensbaby has developed an easy way to capture images through various prisms and filters, resulting in unique flares, reflections, and light streaks.
The OMNI system allows you to attach magnetic effects wands, which are built to incorporate crystals, films, and other translucent materials in front of your lens to produce unique results. Fixing these objects to the front of your lens rather than holding them by hand attains more consistent and predictable effects.
Lensbaby Omni Creative Filters
The Creative Filter kit comes in two different sizes.
Large Size: 62-77mm.
Smaller Size: 49-58mm.
You’ll have to choose the correct size for the lenses or type of system you’re shooting on, but the effects and wands remain the same regardless of what size you go with.
Lenses They Work Best On
The Prisms seem to work best on 50mm lenses with my full-frame Nikon Z lenses. You could also use longer without any issues.
For wide lenses, I can comfortably use them on the 35mm, but any wider, and the prisms might not be large enough to cover enough of the frame unless you were able to get them right up next to that front element.
Effect Wands
The Starter Kit includes three Different Effects Wands
The crystal seahorse
The stretched glass
The rainbow filter
Lensbaby does make additional wands, but you have to order them separately. Here is what they look like and how they work.
Crystal Seahorse
This is a fun wand for casual shooting, portraits, and street photography. The Crystal Seahorse is a distinctive crystal that uses numerous angles and scalloped edges, resulting in intricate flaring, redirected light, and vivid, multicolored reflections. However, the look is less consistent and less predictable.
The Stretch Glass
It uses a flat surface area of glass, making it ideal for producing bright, elongated light beams across an image. Shooting through its flat and curved sides results in a manageable, streaky effect, while an angled shot through the glass results in brilliant reflections. Unlike the Crystal Seahorse, the stretch glass can be a little more difficult to manage since the streaks can be very prominent and distracting. However, you can use it as a flat reflective surface or reflect nearby light sources. It’s the piece of glass I find myself adjusting the most but also using the most in street photography.
The Rainbow Filter
This filter diffracts light, producing radiant rainbows emanating from any intense light source.
This particular filter isn’t as adjustable as the other two. It mostly produces a rainbow-streaking pattern and not much else; it falls off easily in the bag and is my least favorite filter.
Build Quality
The build quality of the glass crystals is very good and solid. I’ve seen other reviews complaining about how fragile the crystals are, but I haven’t had any issues. I’m also not that rough with them and am careful not to drop them.
The magnetic mounting system is better than I was expecting; the magnets are surprisingly strong, and the build quality of the crystal and filter holder is also very good.
The Magneting Mounts are also very strong and very secure. It’s surprising how strong such small magnets are, and it actually takes quite a bit of force to slide the mounts around the metal ring.
The carrying case is made from thick wool and holds everything, keeping your prisms organized and out of harm’s way.
I have pretty much no complaints with the build quality, except, that the Rainbow filter does often come out of the holder when pulled from the case, but other than that one effects wand, it’s a very well-designed and well-built system.
Bottom Line
I wasn’t expecting the Omni Creative Filter Kit to be as useful or as fun as it is. They are great for livening up a boring situation or adding additional effects to your cityscapes and portraits. I won’t go as far as saying this is a must-have accessory. However, they are still fun and useful for casual and street photographers looking for in-camera optical effects.
The build quality and case they come with are all very high quality, and I really think Lensbaby nailed this system. They have several expansion packs, and you can really get some unique effects out of these kits. I’ve especially loved them when shooting street photography.
Here are some samples of how I’ve used them. For most of these images, I also use a Tiffen Black Pro Mist filter or a K&F Shimmer Diffusion 1 filter. Using a diffusion filter adds some additional glow to the streaks, which helps them blend into the image a little nicer.
For coloring, I’m using my Core Presets, and these images are all shot on either a Nikon Z6 or a Z8.
