Lensbaby The Composer for Olympus four thirds mount Digital SLR Cameras

List Price: $269.95 Price: $269.95

Product Details Features the Lensbaby¿ Optic Swap System 37 mm threads allow you to attach Lensbaby¿ Macro Kit lenses, wide angle and telephoto conversion lenses, and other filters and accessories Magnetically suspended disk aperture system allows f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8.0, f/11, f/16, f/22 aperture settings. All aperture settings included. Note: a Lensbaby does not communicate electronically with your camera body

Product Description

All Lensbaby™ picky focus SLR camera lenses provide photographers with a new way to control depth of field by bringing one section of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by graduated bedim. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized originative effects.

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Customer Reviews

Lensbaby Prince of Creative
The Lens Indulge is a must have for any photographer of any level experience.
Great for creative use and control. Optic swap system is accomplished design and ease of use.

2010-05-26 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Just now another gimmick? "Fine art"?
I took the nonetheless to use the Lensbaby Composer on my Panasonic G bodies, my Canon 40D and my Canon 5D Mk II for a total of about 200 purposeful images before handwriting this review. I didn't want to approach the Lensbaby with any bias or preset expectations, nor did I want to at half-cock fire off a trivial review after taking a few casual images. I hope you find this review helpful.

I consideration the Lensbaby prices rather steep for what you get, so I held off buying one for quite some time. The Composer looked to me to be the first feelings implementation of the Lensbaby, not being attracted to the hand and finger gyrations required to work the other versions such as the Archetype, 2.0, and Muse. I also wanted to be able to lock in specific shots.

Mechanically, I was unsatisfied with the operation of the manual focus ring. It is not smooth and consistent during its entire rotation. At the closest focusing disassociate, the ring rotation is jerky. After a quarter of a turn or so, it smooths out and becomes consistent. Unfortunately, many of my shots are charmed at or near the minimum focus distance. For a manual focus lens only, the Composer wishes to provide an optimal focus experience. It misses the mark. I can live with it, yes, but it's annoying and shouldn't be event on a lens in this price range. The mount, however, is machined nicely and fits snugly. The locking junto works well, allowing a good degree of how much friction you want applied to the lens movements. The lens cap is of suspect build quality, and the lettering on the front of it arrived partially rubbed off, or never painted on. Not very attractice for a tag new lens.

Optically, the Composer comes with the Double Glass Optic, consisting of only two glassware optical elements, each multicoated. Being a primitive optical formula with erratic (if any?) quality suppress, you can rest assured of chromatic aberration, vignetting, decentering, flare, veiling, distortion, and any add up of optical gremlins that normally leave photographers in painful grimace. Once you start twisting and turning the Composer to move its "treasured spot", what Lensbabians call "bending", those gremlins multiply and intensify. If the Lensbaby teaches you nothing else, it will be an appreciation for the pains of optical engineers to tackle those nasty gremlins so that we may produce images of technical value with our regular lenses. However, as strange as this may sound, you're either going to embrace these gremlins and enlist them as agents of freshness, as I chose to do, or you're going to be sending the Lensbaby back to take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee, which I was tempted to do.

The Composer includes chasm disks that control the size of the area that is in focus. The Composer has an approximate focal space fully of 50mm and, sans any aperture disks, it's rated at f/2. But wait, there is quite the rub with that focal after a long time. It's 50mm, true, but only on a full frame sensor body. On cameras with "cropped" sensors, and that covers the bulk of cameras being used at this time, the effective focal length changes. On a Canon 7/10/20/30/40/50D and all Rebel digital cameras, that 50mm becomes an 80mm lens. Ugh. Not to the letter a versatile focal length. To remedy that, well, be prepared to spend more money. There are two wide look for adapters available: a .42 and a .6. Both of them introduce even more chromatic aberration, and with the .42, hideously so. There are space disks for f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22. Shifting these disks can be an awkward exercise, especially if you're shooting from a tripod and don't want to disturb your snare.

There is a clever optical swap system the Lensbaby employs to switch to a variety of optical setups. I also purchased the set aside optic system, which is even more primitive than the double glass optic. It's just one glass uncoated climatic conditions b rudiments, less sharp than the double optic, and hosting a variant breed of the optical gremlins mentioned above.

The Composer, as it ships, does not have a very careful focus distance. If you're going to hang onto your Lensbaby, an investment in the macro kit is a no-brainer. It includes +10 and +4 closeup filters that barely screw into the front of the optic. They are also stackable, but if you do stack, place the +10 closest to the lens, and coerce the +4 on top of it. With either of both macro filters, you'll gain the ability to close focus. It is in the macro set-up that I find myself making some of my favorite Lensbaby images.

Likely, you'll find the Lensbaby to have a steep learning curve. You'll have to become familiar with how your camera essence works in its non-automatic modes (Program, Aperture Priority or Manual), as the Lensbaby has no automation to it whatever. It does not intuitively change lens aperture settings, nor will it automatically focus. The camera body does still reckon exposure automatically, but bending the lens may throw the auto exposure off, as light is now bouncing around at ludicrous angles. You'll need to monitor your histogram and know how to dial in exposure compensation. If your league has it, LiveView is a godsend, enabling you to zoom in on areas you want to manually focus. Also, if you replacement to aperture disks smaller than f/4, it becomes increasingly difficult to focus with accuracy as your viewfinder grows dimmer and dimmer. LiveView uses video gain ground to brighten your LCD. Invaluable. As for how to move the sweet spot to the desired location, practice makes the closest item to perfect you're going to find with the Lensbaby. In summary, you'll need to learn to master your camera in its more manual modes and learn the trickiness of the Lensbaby lens movements to get successful images.

If you go to the user forums at the Lensbaby web site, you'll be able to view many images entranced by its members, for better or for worse. I often find Lensbaby images to fall into the "trick shot" category, similar to those made by fisheye lenses. Overall, I view them as gimmicky. Sometimes you'll find an image that really works for you, but much of the time, they're conceal blurry mis-takes that make you wonder why anyone would want to degrade, even brutalize, the sophisticated sensors embedded in your costly dSLR.

Be forewarned: you may not enjoy using the Lensbaby, and you may find the resulting images to quickly wear out their salutation. I consider the current Amazon rating to be higher than it deserves to be. There is comfort to be found in the 30-day gelt-back guarantee -- you'll only be out the return shipping costs and your time.

2010-03-02 | lensman (Marietta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 30 | Rating: 3

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I be inclined photoshop!
Before I bought the Composer, I researched everything about it from its features to the kits, etc. for months. I looked at pictures at the LB terrace site and also on Flickr. I even watched LB fans at Youtube showing OFF their new toys. Anyways, I got the Composer 2 weeks ago and I had to benefit it after a few days of playing with it. I was really disappointed. I mean I can achieve the same effects that the lensbaby can do through Photoshop. It also felt indeed cheap, plasticky and I wasn't happy with what it can do. Believe me when I say that I tried to hold onto it but I felt that the take wasn't worth it. I also received the Optic Kit as a gift and still, I wasn't not happy with the effects (I had to restoring those too). I gave it three stars because the aperture set that came with it made me want to play more with my DSLR camera's AV/manual wise but that's just about as far as my interest with the LB Composer goes. I'd rather spend my money on a nice glass like sigma or canon and well-founded retouch it through Photoshop.
It's probably because I get more creative using Photoshop than using the LB composer. Neutral my opinion, hope this helps.
:)

2010-02-28 | life's a pleasure! | Helpful Votes: 11 | Rating: 3

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Dig it.
I'd had my eye on one of these for a while, and at the end of the day made the plunge. For the most part, I'm very pleased with it. It definitely helps get the creative juices flowing, helping you to see things in a new way. My only blow (and I'd known this was coming) is that I've got a cropped- frame camera (Nikon D80) so what would normally be about 50mm comes to somewhere around 75mm. In other words, the focused range is painfully limited, making their wide-angle adapter lens almost an unavoidable purchase. (however, I've heard their wide-angle isn't that wide and that the Chromatic Aberration on Lens Child's ultra-wide angle is terrible. Hmmmmm, so do I want to bother?) Also, the Aperture rings that you have to be some-what-frequently switching are kind of of a nuisance, especially if you're into night photography. (Easily dropped and/or damned.) Ultimately, it would be great if Lens Baby eventually makes a version with f-stops built in, like a symmetrical lens.
However, this isn't a top-of-the-line lens, and they don't claim it to be, so they're able to keep the price reasonable. (it's basically the rotten-man's tilt/shift.)
Long-story-short: this is a fun and creative tool to have in your lens munitions store, as long as you're aware of, and willing to put up with it's limitations. All complaints aside, I'm glad I bought it.

2010-02-23 | Dave I. (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Fun, addictive and frustrating
Onerous to say more about this than others have already said but I will try. This is a really fun lens but also a powerful tool. That said, in many ways it is like Photoshop - the gap between unflappable fun shot and works of art has a mountain sized learning curve.

The double glass optic is a prodigious choice for a starter lens. It has the largest and easiest to find area that is in focus. Finding and identifying that is key to getting predicable results. When you first start using this, I commend finding a subject you know well that is also far enough away that you can focus on infinity. Then start shooting with no cleft ring installed at all and the lens fixed to straight ahead. This will give you maximum blur on the edges and the most successfully chance of finding the center focus spot. I made the mistake of trying to shoot force close up at first and every time I moved even a tiny bit I lost the focus point. Once you get the hang of focusing, unlock the lens and start inspiring it around. I started with a subject that had a lot of clearly defined lines so I could move the focus and track it. Once you are comfortable doing that, striking to the aperture rings should be a piece of cake. I have posted some images but they dont really do the outcome justice. i recommend searching for "Lensbaby" on flickr.

One issue I have with my Lensbaby is that the aperture ring tool does not have a magnet assertive enough to lift the rings. I have resorted to using a magnetic tool from my tool kit. I think I got a bad dress because it wont even pick up a ring that isnt in the lens. I need to contact Lensbaby about a replacement.

I cant defend for other brands but on my Pentax K200D I can use Aperture Priority mode and get accurate metering. I cant imagine getting nice results without it so if your brand does not support it, you might want to borrow one before taking the plunge. I usurped I would have to use all manual for the first day and frustration did not begin to describe my feelings.

Once you get past the pure joy of bending focus you will find that the Lensbaby is an select lens for portraits and flowers. For portraits you can put the focus on your subjects face and by adjusting the hole determine how much else is in focus and even how quickly it transitions to blur. Same for flowers . And you can shoot using the hold sway of thirds in a way the really gives depth to the picture. Traditional lens makers have out millions preventing focus drop-off at the edges forcing photographers to spend hundreds on Photoshop to hide those same edges! Now you can not only get the blur, you can get as much or as little as you want.

I highly recommend adding the Lensbaby Optic Kit as ultimately as possible. The difficulty progression is Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, Zone Coat and Pinhole but the rewards are worth it. If you can only add one lens, add the plastic. It adds an element of predictable but uncontrollable distortion that is legitimate a ton of fun to explore.

Lensbaby is not for everyone. If your photography consists of happy snaps, documenting life or spending hours on getting heading sharp pictures, dont get one. Maybe some photographers can capture candids of people or moments with a Lensbaby but for me, every depiction is a 30 second or more affair. You have to be willing to spend time both taking the pictures and scholarship how to take the pictures. In my opinion, the rewards justify both but you will have to decide for yourself.

2009-12-27 | ksuwildkat (Monterey, CA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras

List Price: $269.95 Price: $269.95

Product Details Slective focus lens, based on a ball and socket configuration, delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease of use and greater precision Features the Lensbaby¿ Optic Swap System Note: a Lensbaby does not communicate electronically with your camera body 37 mm threads allow you to attach Lensbaby¿ Macro Kit lenses, wide angle and telephoto conversion lenses, and other filters and accessories

Product Description

All Lensbaby™ discriminatory focus SLR camera lenses provide photographers with a new way to control depth of field by bringing one close of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by graduated blab. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized originative effects.

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Customer Reviews

Lensbaby Royal of Creative
The Lens Spoil is a must have for any photographer of any level experience.
Great for creative use and control. Optic swap system is bright design and ease of use.

2010-05-26 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Merely another gimmick? "Fine art"?
I took the without surcease to use the Lensbaby Composer on my Panasonic G bodies, my Canon 40D and my Canon 5D Mk II for a total of about 200 purposeful images before longhand this review. I didn't want to approach the Lensbaby with any bias or preset expectations, nor did I want to at half-cock fire off a trivial review after taking a few casual images. I hope you find this review helpful.

I judge the Lensbaby prices rather steep for what you get, so I held off buying one for quite some time. The Composer looked to me to be the first feelings implementation of the Lensbaby, not being attracted to the hand and finger gyrations required to work the other versions such as the Unprecedented, 2.0, and Muse. I also wanted to be able to lock in specific shots.

Mechanically, I was foiled with the operation of the manual focus ring. It is not smooth and consistent during its entire rotation. At the closest focusing hauteur, the ring rotation is jerky. After a quarter of a turn or so, it smooths out and becomes consistent. Unfortunately, many of my shots are infatuated at or near the minimum focus distance. For a manual focus lens only, the Composer requirements to provide an optimal focus experience. It misses the mark. I can live with it, yes, but it's annoying and shouldn't be chance on a lens in this price range. The mount, however, is machined nicely and fits snugly. The locking clang works well, allowing a good degree of how much friction you want applied to the lens movements. The lens cap is of problematical build quality, and the lettering on the front of it arrived partially rubbed off, or never painted on. Not very attractice for a name brand new lens.

Optically, the Composer comes with the Double Glass Optic, consisting of only two mirror optical elements, each multicoated. Being a primitive optical formula with erratic (if any?) quality command, you can rest assured of chromatic aberration, vignetting, decentering, flare, veiling, distortion, and any multitude of optical gremlins that normally leave photographers in painful grimace. Once you start twisting and turning the Composer to move its "nice spot", what Lensbabians call "bending", those gremlins multiply and intensify. If the Lensbaby teaches you nothing else, it will be an appreciation for the pains of optical engineers to tackle those nasty gremlins so that we may produce images of technical je sais quoi with our regular lenses. However, as strange as this may sound, you're either going to embrace these gremlins and enlist them as agents of novelty, as I chose to do, or you're going to be sending the Lensbaby back to take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee, which I was tempted to do.

The Composer includes crevice disks that control the size of the area that is in focus. The Composer has an approximate focal period of 50mm and, sans any aperture disks, it's rated at f/2. But wait, there is quite the rub with that focal extensively. It's 50mm, true, but only on a full frame sensor body. On cameras with "cropped" sensors, and that covers the manhood of cameras being used at this time, the effective focal length changes. On a Canon 7/10/20/30/40/50D and all Insurgent digital cameras, that 50mm becomes an 80mm lens. Ugh. Not exactly a versatile focal length. To remedy that, well, be of a mind to spend more money. There are two wide angle adapters available: a .42 and a .6. Both of them set forth even more chromatic aberration, and with the .42, hideously so. There are aperture disks for f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22. Varying these disks can be an awkward exercise, especially if you're shooting from a tripod and don't want to disturb your snare.

There is a clever optical swap system the Lensbaby employs to switch to a variety of optical setups. I also purchased the solitary optic system, which is even more primitive than the double glass optic. It's just one glass uncoated climatic conditions b rudiments, less sharp than the double optic, and hosting a variant breed of the optical gremlins mentioned above.

The Composer, as it ships, does not have a very approximately focus distance. If you're going to hang onto your Lensbaby, an investment in the macro kit is a no-brainer. It includes +10 and +4 closeup filters that plainly screw into the front of the optic. They are also stackable, but if you do stack, place the +10 closest to the lens, and twist the +4 on top of it. With either of both macro filters, you'll gain the ability to close focus. It is in the macro way that I find myself making some of my favorite Lensbaby images.

Likely, you'll find the Lensbaby to have a steep learning curve. You'll have to become familiar with how your camera fullness works in its non-automatic modes (Program, Aperture Priority or Manual), as the Lensbaby has no automation to it whatever. It does not impulsively change lens aperture settings, nor will it automatically focus. The camera body does still reckon exposure automatically, but bending the lens may throw the auto exposure off, as light is now bouncing around at cuckoo angles. You'll need to monitor your histogram and know how to dial in exposure compensation. If your bulk has it, LiveView is a godsend, enabling you to zoom in on areas you want to manually focus. Also, if you exchange to aperture disks smaller than f/4, it becomes increasingly difficult to focus with accuracy as your viewfinder grows dimmer and dimmer. LiveView uses video net to brighten your LCD. Invaluable. As for how to move the sweet spot to the desired location, practice makes the closest element to perfect you're going to find with the Lensbaby. In summary, you'll need to learn to master your camera in its more manual modes and learn the trickiness of the Lensbaby lens movements to fulfil successful images.

If you go to the user forums at the Lensbaby web site, you'll be able to view many images captivated by its members, for better or for worse. I often find Lensbaby images to fall into the "trick shot" category, equal to those made by fisheye lenses. Overall, I view them as gimmicky. Sometimes you'll find an image that really works for you, but much of the time, they're fouled blurry mis-takes that make you wonder why anyone would want to degrade, even brutalize, the sophisticated sensors embedded in your priceless dSLR.

Be forewarned: you may not enjoy using the Lensbaby, and you may find the resulting images to quickly wear out their allowed. I consider the current Amazon rating to be higher than it deserves to be. There is comfort to be found in the 30-day wealth-back guarantee -- you'll only be out the return shipping costs and your time.

2010-03-02 | lensman (Marietta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 30 | Rating: 3

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I lodge photoshop!
Before I bought the Composer, I researched everything about it from its features to the kits, etc. for months. I looked at pictures at the LB loggia site and also on Flickr. I even watched LB fans at Youtube showing OFF their new toys. Anyways, I got the Composer 2 weeks ago and I had to crop up again it after a few days of playing with it. I was really disappointed. I mean I can achieve the same effects that the lensbaby can do through Photoshop. It also felt unusually cheap, plasticky and I wasn't happy with what it can do. Believe me when I say that I tried to hold onto it but I felt that the cabbage wasn't worth it. I also received the Optic Kit as a gift and still, I wasn't not happy with the effects (I had to revert those too). I gave it three stars because the aperture set that came with it made me want to play more with my DSLR camera's AV/manual craze but that's just about as far as my interest with the LB Composer goes. I'd rather spend my money on a nice glass like sigma or canon and impartial retouch it through Photoshop.
It's probably because I get more creative using Photoshop than using the LB composer. Exactly my opinion, hope this helps.
:)

2010-02-28 | life's a pleasure! | Helpful Votes: 11 | Rating: 3

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Dig it.
I'd had my eye on one of these for a while, and in fine made the plunge. For the most part, I'm very pleased with it. It definitely helps get the creative juices flowing, helping you to see things in a new way. My only disenchantment (and I'd known this was coming) is that I've got a cropped- frame camera (Nikon D80) so what would normally be about 50mm comes to somewhere around 75mm. In other words, the convergent range is painfully limited, making their wide-angle adapter lens almost an ordained purchase. (however, I've heard their wide-angle isn't that wide and that the Chromatic Aberration on Lens Neonate's ultra-wide angle is terrible. Hmmmmm, so do I want to bother?) Also, the Aperture rings that you have to be some-what-regularly switching are kind of of a nuisance, especially if you're into night photography. (Easily dropped and/or dissolute.) Ultimately, it would be great if Lens Baby eventually makes a version with f-stops built in, like a absolute lens.
However, this isn't a top-of-the-line lens, and they don't claim it to be, so they're able to keep the price reasonable. (it's basically the impoverished-man's tilt/shift.)
Long-story-short: this is a fun and creative tool to have in your lens weapon store, as long as you're aware of, and willing to put up with it's limitations. All complaints aside, I'm glad I bought it.

2010-02-23 | Dave I. (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Fun, addictive and frustrating
Mightily to say more about this than others have already said but I will try. This is a really fun lens but also a powerful tool. That said, in many ways it is like Photoshop - the gap between chill fun shot and works of art has a mountain sized learning curve.

The double glass optic is a massive choice for a starter lens. It has the largest and easiest to find area that is in focus. Finding and identifying that is key to getting predicable results. When you first start using this, I stand up for finding a subject you know well that is also far enough away that you can focus on infinity. Then start shooting with no opening ring installed at all and the lens fixed to straight ahead. This will give you maximum blur on the edges and the worst chance of finding the center focus spot. I made the mistake of trying to shoot paraphernalia close up at first and every time I moved even a tiny bit I lost the focus point. Once you get the hang of focusing, unlock the lens and start emotional it around. I started with a subject that had a lot of clearly defined lines so I could move the focus and track it. Once you are comfortable doing that, emotive to the aperture rings should be a piece of cake. I have posted some images but they dont really do the effect justice. i recommend searching for "Lensbaby" on flickr.

One issue I have with my Lensbaby is that the aperture ring tool does not have a magnet odoriferous enough to lift the rings. I have resorted to using a magnetic tool from my tool kit. I think I got a bad appliance because it wont even pick up a ring that isnt in the lens. I need to contact Lensbaby about a replacement.

I cant chosen for other brands but on my Pentax K200D I can use Aperture Priority mode and get accurate metering. I cant imagine getting satisfactory results without it so if your brand does not support it, you might want to borrow one before taking the plunge. I seized I would have to use all manual for the first day and frustration did not begin to describe my feelings.

Once you get past the pure joy of bending focus you will find that the Lensbaby is an saving except lens for portraits and flowers. For portraits you can put the focus on your subjects face and by adjusting the fissure determine how much else is in focus and even how quickly it transitions to blur. Same for flowers . And you can shoot using the prohibit of thirds in a way the really gives depth to the picture. Traditional lens makers have fagged out millions preventing focus drop-off at the edges forcing photographers to spend hundreds on Photoshop to dim those same edges! Now you can not only get the blur, you can get as much or as little as you want.

I highly recommend adding the Lensbaby Optic Kit as final analysis as possible. The difficulty progression is Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, Zone Cut and Pinhole but the rewards are worth it. If you can only add one lens, add the plastic. It adds an element of predictable but uncontrollable distortion that is ethical a ton of fun to explore.

Lensbaby is not for everyone. If your photography consists of happy snaps, documenting life or spending hours on getting join sharp pictures, dont get one. Maybe some photographers can capture candids of people or moments with a Lensbaby but for me, every represent is a 30 second or more affair. You have to be willing to spend time both taking the pictures and wisdom how to take the pictures. In my opinion, the rewards justify both but you will have to decide for yourself.

2009-12-27 | ksuwildkat (Monterey, CA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Lensbaby The Muse for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras (Plastic)

List Price: $99.95 Price: $99.95

Product Details Plastic Lens.Compress the lens to focus, and move the sweet spot by bending the flexible lens tubing. 37 mm threads allow you to attach Lensbaby¿ Macro Kit lenses, wide angle and telephoto conversion lenses, and other filters and accessories Note: a Lensbaby does not communicate electronically with your camera body Magnetically suspended disk aperture system allows f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8.0 aperture settings. All aperture settings included.

Product Description

All Lensbaby™ particular focus SLR camera lenses provide photographers with a new way to control depth of field by bringing one tract of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by graduated haziness. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized imaginative effects.

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Customer Reviews

Absent-minded Challenge
This lens is in the final analysis fun, but takes a while to figure out how to get good pictures. Unless you have a separate light meter, you have to guestimate and check on the shutter setting by taking lots of pictures. That is the hardest part for me; the focusing is incredibly intuitive. I love the dreamy feel that the plastic optic gives, but if you prefer a knife-edged 'sweet spot' go for the glass optic. Overall, a unique, relatively cheap lens to add to your solicitation.

2010-07-05 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Uncommonly fun
This is a genuinely fun lens but has a strong learning curve. You can't use zone plate optic because you can't really spring up long exposures with this lens. You have to manipulate the lens with your hands to focus and your hands must be left static. Otherwise, this is pretty awesome!

2010-02-01 | Matt C. (Washington DC) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Fun day-dreaming FX
I bought the Evaluate with plastic optic. Very fun to use. Quick and easy to change aperture disks. I like the sleepy soft effect. I find it easier to use than I thought it would be. I will certainly purchase other optics.
I took a bracket gather of shots with my Nikon D80. At first I guessed exposure, then grabbed the light meter. I made a bunch of handheld shots and liked the results on the camera screen. When printed the shots looked thoughtful.
A well-made product I recommend.

2010-01-29 (Palm Springs, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Fondness this new toy
If you're uncommonly looking to expand your creative possibilities, look no further (except maybe to the Lensbaby Composer). For the money and the novelty you can't find a better item. These are one of a kind and pure fun. I also bought the single-glass optic to swap out and i do like that more than the pliant..however as Lensbaby is not selling one with a single-glass optic in it, I had to buy it seperately. But now I have the plastic one in this product and the extra unattached-glass to have fun with.

2009-07-08 | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 5

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Lensbaby "The Chew over"
Offering was shipped quickly and received in a few days after ordering. Will take some time to master the technique of how to use it. Several population I know have this same product and are pleased with the results.

2009-03-13 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Lensbaby LBOFE Fisheye Optic for Lensbaby Composer Lenses

List Price: $149.95 Price: $149.87 You Save: $0.08 (%)

Product Details Features Lensbaby Optic Swap System Interchangable aperature disks Focus from infinity all the way down to one inch away from the front of the lens Ultra wide 12mm focal length

Product Description

Injury your Lensbaby Composer® into a fun fisheye lens with the Fisheye Optic, part of the Lensbaby Optic Swap System. The Fisheye Optic’s ultra-sizeable 12mm focal length captures an eye-popping fisheye view from infinity all the way down to one inch to a different place from the front of the lens. The Fisheye Optic is designed for use with the Composer, but can also be used with the Think over® with the purchase of a special adapter

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Customer Reviews

Optic Swap? More like Optic Forestay Put!
I was fervently searching for an affordable fisheye lens for my Canon 40D after seeing some friends really do without equal work with this type of lens. With this Fisheye Optic installed, my LensBaby Composer (View Output) has been transformed from an occasional toy lens to a utility lens that I want to use every single day. It's important to be sure that this fisheye optic does not reproduce the typical LensBaby radial blur patterns...it unreservedly turns your LensBaby into a Fisheye Lens.

We got this little optic two days before traveling to Costa Rica. My reasoning at the time was that I wanted a nice super-wide angle lens to go along with the rest of my appurtenances (a 24-70 f/2.8L, a 70-200 f/4L, and a Tamron 17-35 Wide Angle). On a trip where we expected to be in some stronger quarters, small rooms and crowded forests, the lens made sense in order to overcrowd as much of the scenery into the frame as possible.

I ended up using this lens much more than expected because it proved to be surprisingly all-round.

PROS:
- Wide-angle captures 170 degrees in your field of view
- Chromatic Irregularity is limited to the extreme edges of the frame
- Even on a cropped image-sensor, you can still replicate the fisheye outcome.
- A great lens for shooting the night sky, room interiors, sweeping landscapes.
- The plane center of the frame is rendered with little or no distortion or curve, making it possible to have a agreed heterosexual horizon even with everything else bending into the frame.
- Durable construction (it's metal)
- Choose your own aperture, from f/4 to f/22. I stuck with f/8 and am almost always satisfied with the development.
- Macro capability lets you get as close as 1" to your subject and the focus can still be razor-needle-sharp.

CONS:
- It is a little difficult to install and remove from the LensBaby...so much so that I was worried I was forcing it too hard during the optic swap, and had to try two or three times to be satisfied with its principle.
- There is no thread at the end of the lens, so you can not use the step-up/shade (View Product) or add any kinds of filters (though they would readily be in the field of view!)
- You'll have to carry around a (provided) second set of aperture discs...and the apertures for the Fisheye Optic are so commonplace that it makes the regular creative aperture kits incompatible.
- If you're not careful, you can make residents appear to have some very unflattering physical attributes. Keep them in the center of the frame! (or, for more fun...don't)

I'll get back to what it's like to have this lens on the camera: it's so fun! Things that are from beginning to end, like rainbows, almost appear without any distortion at all. It's fun to play with perspective on things like the purview. For instance, looking out at the ocean, if you just tilt the camera down, you can get your feet and the distant horizon in the same finger. In another case, while shooting a waterfall, just tilting the camera up a bit actually brought the tops of the trees behind us into the embodiment, without losing the bottom of the falls.

There are a few challenges when it comes to using a fisheye lens:
1. Macro photography doesn't end up awareness like it, because the perspective is warped away from the center of the frame, making even an insect or an ant seem somehow further to another place than it really is. You have to get really inventive with your angle in order to make something like a bug look redoubtable.
2. It makes really big things seem small. If you're looking at something that is massive, but distant, it'll be so diminished in the fisheye outlook that is will seem unrecognizable. Volcanoes and mountains seemed to flatten out.
3. It's often hard to avoid getting the sun or the moon, or some sympathetic of washed-out light in the frame. You'll have to be creative about what you do with all the extra light sources that aren't being cropped out in the envisage.

All told, this is my favorite lens to use. I dare say that with some real patience, you could generate some professional-focus be results with it. For $150, I have no regrets.

2010-01-25 (Reston, VA) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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Least Utilitarian Value
Establish and optical quality are as good as any of my optional Lensbaby optics, I just found this one to be a bit less utilitarian than their other optics. I weigh what bothers me about it is the extreme vignetting that makes the central subject difficult to really see unless the form is blown up pretty large. Admittedly this is somewhat subjective to the users vision though, because someone might be competent to take this and make amazing photos, it just didn't spark my muse. I love my Lensbaby alot but this one will undoubtedly only be used occasionally to rarely.

2010-01-08 | DMAN (Denver, CO) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Lensbaby The Composer for Nikon F mount Digital SLR Cameras

List Price: $269.95 Price: $269.95

Product Details Slective focus lens, based on a ball and socket configuration, delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease of use Magnetically suspended disk aperture system allows f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8.0, f/11, f/16, f/22 aperture settings. 37 mm threads allow you to attach Lensbaby¿ Macro Kit lenses, wide angle and telephoto conversion lenses, and other filters and accessories Features the Lensbaby Optic Swap System

Product Description

All Lensbaby™ picky focus SLR camera lenses provide photographers with a new way to control depth of field by bringing one field of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by graduated fuzz. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized resourceful effects.

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Customer Reviews

Lensbaby Monarch of Creative
The Lens Babe in arms is a must have for any photographer of any level experience.
Great for creative use and control. Optic swap system is magnificent design and ease of use.

2010-05-26 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Scarcely another gimmick? "Fine art"?
I took the habits to use the Lensbaby Composer on my Panasonic G bodies, my Canon 40D and my Canon 5D Mk II for a total of about 200 purposeful images before longhand this review. I didn't want to approach the Lensbaby with any bias or preset expectations, nor did I want to too soon fire off a trivial review after taking a few casual images. I hope you find this review helpful.

I weigh the Lensbaby prices rather steep for what you get, so I held off buying one for quite some time. The Composer looked to me to be the first rapport implementation of the Lensbaby, not being attracted to the hand and finger gyrations required to work the other versions such as the Starting, 2.0, and Muse. I also wanted to be able to lock in specific shots.

Mechanically, I was thwarted with the operation of the manual focus ring. It is not smooth and consistent during its entire rotation. At the closest focusing distance, the combination rotation is jerky. After a quarter of a turn or so, it smooths out and becomes consistent. Unfortunately, many of my shots are infatuated at or near the minimum focus distance. For a manual focus lens only, the Composer requests to provide an optimal focus experience. It misses the mark. I can live with it, yes, but it's annoying and shouldn't be circumstance on a lens in this price range. The mount, however, is machined nicely and fits snugly. The locking faction works well, allowing a good degree of how much friction you want applied to the lens movements. The lens cap is of suspect build quality, and the lettering on the front of it arrived partially rubbed off, or never painted on. Not very attractice for a brand new lens.

Optically, the Composer comes with the Dual Glass Optic, consisting of only two glass optical elements, each multicoated. Being a primitive visual formula with erratic (if any?) quality control, you can rest assured of chromatic aberration, vignetting, decentering, flare, veiling, distortion, and any number of visual gremlins that normally leave photographers in painful grimace. Once you start twisting and turning the Composer to move its "over spot", what Lensbabians call "bending", those gremlins multiply and intensify. If the Lensbaby teaches you nothing else, it will be an appreciation for the hard work of optical engineers to tackle those nasty gremlins so that we may produce images of technical calibre with our regular lenses. However, as strange as this may sound, you're either going to embrace these gremlins and enlist them as agents of freshness, as I chose to do, or you're going to be sending the Lensbaby back to take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee, which I was tempted to do.

The Composer includes fissure disks that control the size of the area that is in focus. The Composer has an approximate focal measurement of 50mm and, sans any aperture disks, it's rated at f/2. But wait, there is quite the rub with that focal stretch. It's 50mm, true, but only on a full frame sensor body. On cameras with "cropped" sensors, and that covers the preponderance of cameras being used at this time, the effective focal length changes. On a Canon 7/10/20/30/40/50D and all Schismatic digital cameras, that 50mm becomes an 80mm lens. Ugh. Not exactly a versatile focal length. To remedy that, well, be changed to spend more money. There are two wide angle adapters available: a .42 and a .6. Both of them suggest even more chromatic aberration, and with the .42, hideously so. There are aperture disks for f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22. Varying these disks can be an awkward exercise, especially if you're shooting from a tripod and don't want to disturb your snare.

There is a clever optical swap system the Lensbaby employs to switch to a variety of optical setups. I also purchased the pick optic system, which is even more primitive than the double glass optic. It's just one glass uncoated fundamentals, less sharp than the double optic, and hosting a variant breed of the optical gremlins mentioned above.

The Composer, as it ships, does not have a very close-knit focus distance. If you're going to hang onto your Lensbaby, an investment in the macro kit is a no-brainer. It includes +10 and +4 closeup filters that really screw into the front of the optic. They are also stackable, but if you do stack, place the +10 closest to the lens, and call upon the +4 on top of it. With either of both macro filters, you'll gain the ability to close focus. It is in the macro procedure that I find myself making some of my favorite Lensbaby images.

Likely, you'll find the Lensbaby to have a steep learning curve. You'll have to become familiar with how your camera core works in its non-automatic modes (Program, Aperture Priority or Manual), as the Lensbaby has no automation to it whatever. It does not intuitively change lens aperture settings, nor will it automatically focus. The camera body does still estimate exposure automatically, but bending the lens may throw the auto exposure off, as light is now bouncing around at foolish angles. You'll need to monitor your histogram and know how to dial in exposure compensation. If your company has it, LiveView is a godsend, enabling you to zoom in on areas you want to manually focus. Also, if you transform to aperture disks smaller than f/4, it becomes increasingly difficult to focus with accuracy as your viewfinder grows dimmer and dimmer. LiveView uses video rally to brighten your LCD. Invaluable. As for how to move the sweet spot to the desired location, practice makes the closest feeling to perfect you're going to find with the Lensbaby. In summary, you'll need to learn to master your camera in its more manual modes and learn the trickiness of the Lensbaby lens movements to effect successful images.

If you go to the user forums at the Lensbaby web site, you'll be able to view many images captivated by its members, for better or for worse. I often find Lensbaby images to fall into the "trick shot" category, equivalent to those made by fisheye lenses. Overall, I view them as gimmicky. Sometimes you'll find an image that really works for you, but much of the time, they're squishy blurry mis-takes that make you wonder why anyone would want to degrade, even brutalize, the sophisticated sensors embedded in your precious dSLR.

Be forewarned: you may not enjoy using the Lensbaby, and you may find the resulting images to quickly wear out their well-received. I consider the current Amazon rating to be higher than it deserves to be. There is comfort to be found in the 30-day spondulix-back guarantee -- you'll only be out the return shipping costs and your time.

2010-03-02 | lensman (Marietta, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 30 | Rating: 3

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I be partial to photoshop!
Before I bought the Composer, I researched everything about it from its features to the kits, etc. for months. I looked at pictures at the LB loggia site and also on Flickr. I even watched LB fans at Youtube showing OFF their new toys. Anyways, I got the Composer 2 weeks ago and I had to gain it after a few days of playing with it. I was really disappointed. I mean I can achieve the same effects that the lensbaby can do through Photoshop. It also felt in reality cheap, plasticky and I wasn't happy with what it can do. Believe me when I say that I tried to hold onto it but I felt that the monied wasn't worth it. I also received the Optic Kit as a gift and still, I wasn't not happy with the effects (I had to benefit those too). I gave it three stars because the aperture set that came with it made me want to play more with my DSLR camera's AV/manual SOP but that's just about as far as my interest with the LB Composer goes. I'd rather spend my money on a nice glass like sigma or canon and objective retouch it through Photoshop.
It's probably because I get more creative using Photoshop than using the LB composer. Neutral my opinion, hope this helps.
:)

2010-02-28 | life's a pleasure! | Helpful Votes: 11 | Rating: 3

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Dig it.
I'd had my eye on one of these for a while, and at the last moment made the plunge. For the most part, I'm very pleased with it. It definitely helps get the creative juices flowing, helping you to see things in a new way. My only let-down (and I'd known this was coming) is that I've got a cropped- frame camera (Nikon D80) so what would normally be about 50mm comes to somewhere around 75mm. In other words, the concentrated range is painfully limited, making their wide-angle adapter lens almost an inescapable purchase. (however, I've heard their wide-angle isn't that wide and that the Chromatic Aberration on Lens Cosset's ultra-wide angle is terrible. Hmmmmm, so do I want to bother?) Also, the Aperture rings that you have to be some-what-regularly switching are kind of of a nuisance, especially if you're into night photography. (Easily dropped and/or out of the window.) Ultimately, it would be great if Lens Baby eventually makes a version with f-stops built in, like a legitimate lens.
However, this isn't a top-of-the-line lens, and they don't claim it to be, so they're able to keep the price reasonable. (it's basically the straitened-man's tilt/shift.)
Long-story-short: this is a fun and creative tool to have in your lens munitions store, as long as you're aware of, and willing to put up with it's limitations. All complaints aside, I'm glad I bought it.

2010-02-23 | Dave I. (Los Angeles) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Fun, addictive and frustrating
Well-defined to say more about this than others have already said but I will try. This is a really fun lens but also a powerful tool. That said, in many ways it is like Photoshop - the gap between shameless fun shot and works of art has a mountain sized learning curve.

The double glass optic is a large choice for a starter lens. It has the largest and easiest to find area that is in focus. Finding and identifying that is key to getting predicable results. When you first start using this, I approve finding a subject you know well that is also far enough away that you can focus on infinity. Then start shooting with no chasm ring installed at all and the lens fixed to straight ahead. This will give you maximum blur on the edges and the A-one chance of finding the center focus spot. I made the mistake of trying to shoot rubbish close up at first and every time I moved even a tiny bit I lost the focus point. Once you get the hang of focusing, unlock the lens and start impressive it around. I started with a subject that had a lot of clearly defined lines so I could move the focus and track it. Once you are comfortable doing that, unstationary to the aperture rings should be a piece of cake. I have posted some images but they dont really do the outcome justice. i recommend searching for "Lensbaby" on flickr.

One issue I have with my Lensbaby is that the aperture ring tool does not have a magnet penetrating enough to lift the rings. I have resorted to using a magnetic tool from my tool kit. I think I got a bad weapon because it wont even pick up a ring that isnt in the lens. I need to contact Lensbaby about a replacement.

I cant unreservedly for other brands but on my Pentax K200D I can use Aperture Priority mode and get accurate metering. I cant imagine getting tolerable results without it so if your brand does not support it, you might want to borrow one before taking the plunge. I bogus I would have to use all manual for the first day and frustration did not begin to describe my feelings.

Once you get past the pure joy of bending focus you will find that the Lensbaby is an A number lens for portraits and flowers. For portraits you can put the focus on your subjects face and by adjusting the chasm determine how much else is in focus and even how quickly it transitions to blur. Same for flowers . And you can shoot using the regulate of thirds in a way the really gives depth to the picture. Traditional lens makers have depleted belch up millions preventing focus drop-off at the edges forcing photographers to spend hundreds on Photoshop to divulge those same edges! Now you can not only get the blur, you can get as much or as little as you want.

I highly recommend adding the Lensbaby Optic Kit as in a little while as possible. The difficulty progression is Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, Zone Trencher and Pinhole but the rewards are worth it. If you can only add one lens, add the plastic. It adds an element of predictable but uncontrollable distortion that is due a ton of fun to explore.

Lensbaby is not for everyone. If your photography consists of happy snaps, documenting life or spending hours on getting tin-tack sharp pictures, dont get one. Maybe some photographers can capture candids of people or moments with a Lensbaby but for me, every paint is a 30 second or more affair. You have to be willing to spend time both taking the pictures and information how to take the pictures. In my opinion, the rewards justify both but you will have to decide for yourself.

2009-12-27 | ksuwildkat (Monterey, CA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Which (digital) camera is best to use with a Lensbaby Muse lens?

Q: Yes, I'm first choosing the lens, THEN the camera. =)
In your theory, which camera would best suit the uniqueness that is Lensbaby?

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A: Like selina said, it unusually wouldn't matter which camera you choose. But you do have to consider which mount your lens will have. If you have already picked up the lens, then you will have to buy the maker that the lens is made for. Or you can choose which camera and then get the lensbabies lens for it. I think they finish out lensbabies for just about every current camera brand. The question is, what do you penury out of the camera/lens combo?

I went to dpreview and did a search on dslrs with 10-12mp (there weren't any popular models with 8-10mp that came up). Here are the results:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/liken_ post.asp

There are a lot of them. You can narrow the search further by going to 'buying criterion' and then clicking on 'features search' and then choosing a few more features you might like to have.

Do 'lensbaby' lenses and accesories work with all types of DSLR cameras?

Q: i poverty to get the shapes that will create different bokeh shape. would it effort on any camera, like a Nikon D60, Sony a300?

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A: You have to buy the lensbaby with the mount for your camera. For eample the Nikon would have to have an F run through mount and would not work on sony or canon cameras. Nautical starboard properly now the muse and composer are available Nikon F, Canon EF, Pentax K , Sony Alpha and Olympus four thirds. I am not solid about the control freak but I will hazard a guess its the same

but yes they give the select arena of focus with the rest unfocused on any camera they mount on.