The Lensbaby Composer is along with its siblings, a unique lens that allows for selective focus photography, replaceable aperture rings and replaceable optics.
The Lensbaby is an all manual lens in more sense than your typical aufofocus lens. It does not feature any contact between lens and camera body so as the lens implies your left to your skill and creative mind.
The biggest features of the Lensbaby Composer is its flexibility. This lens will literally bend in any direction you point is for a true control over the focus area. What you point on is in focus and not much else. – This will make you think differently when it comes to photography and can create some truly unique photos.
The built quaility of the Lensbaby Composer is pretty average. Some things like the mount is very solid and some other things feel cheap. – But bare in mind this lens is among the cheapest you can buy!
Don´t try this with your portrait lens!
As shown this lens is literally flexible. Here pointed upper right which in where the focus in the final shot would be as well.
In front of the aluminium mount sits the ring which lock and unlock the rest of the lens when bending it. The ring is made of plastic and can be a challenge to unlock if you have tightly locked. In front of this ring you´ll find a plastic half-ball on which the rest of the lens is mounted. The half-ball allows the lens to twist and turn kinda like your average ball-head.
In front of the half-ball you´ll find the rubberized focus ring.
The Lensbaby Composer kit was delivered to me with every accessory which mean heart shaped aperture rings, macro kit, softer plastic optics and teleconverters etc. Some felt gimmicky and some rose the lens to another level. I was quite fond of the macro lens which allowed for surprisingly close focusing and transformed it into a selective focus macro lens. With the F11 aperture installed (remove tool is included for a extremely simple change) is was quite a challenge to nail focus let alone find it in the viewfinder.
It must admit I was being quite skeptical about the optical quality of the Lensbaby Composer even with the double glass optics installed. When I saw the above photo I was proven wrong.
The Lensbaby is a lens I didn´t plan on bringing with me in advance and when I didn´t bring it along I always found a subject where I thought this lens would bring me something special. And these are situations where I think I understood the meaning of this lens. Besides the selective focus this lens forces you to think differently and sorta forces you to become a better photographer – To simplify your photos!
An otherwise busy photo made simple by the selective focus and a powerful composition.
The narrow focus area draw the viewer towards it while making the things out of focus turn out of proportions. Some might argue they could make the same in a photo editor but it´s always better to get what you can at the shoot.
As mentioned before sharpness was quite good with the dual optics installed. Some of the accessories did degrade quality, some intentionally with a dreamy effect.
Overall ultimate sharpness wouldn´t be the number one choice for selecting a lens like the LensBaby Composer
Downloadable sample straight from RAW files (right click and choose save as..)
Sample 1
Conclusion
The Lensbaby Composer surprised me in many ways. It was sharper than expected but it also felt very different from any other lenses I´m used too. Built quality was average and some of the accessories didn´t impress me while the macro kit felt like a “must buy”.
In the end I would rate it three cranes for the lens and accessories and five for the uniqueness of the lens. - It´s all about fun with the Lensbaby Composer
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I owe a thanks to Lensbaby distributor Focus Nordic for allowing me to review this lens.
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Spectacular photos! I especially like the third one of the dragon fly.
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Hi Sam
Thank you for looking. – I´m honored by your comment and glad you liked the photos.
Happy shooting!
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