| Lensbaby The Composer for Canon EF mount Digital SLR Cameras |  | Brand: Lensbaby
Category: Photography
List Price: $269.95
Buy New: $264.59
as of 9/9/2010 09:56 CDT details
You Save: $5.36 (2%)
In Stock
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  23 reviews
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Maximum Focal Length: 50
Minimum Focal Length: 50
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5
MPN: LBCC
Model: LBCC
UPC: 188772002344
EAN: 0188772002344
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | 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 | | • | 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. | | • | 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 |
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Product Description
With the Composer, Lensbaby introduces a completely new lens, based on a ball and socket configuration that delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease. The new Composer retains its position after being bent and is easy to use even with one hand. Photographers no longer have to squeeze the lens to focus, but can simply tilt the lens to a desired angle and then focus with a traditional barrel focusing ring. The Composer stays in the desired bent position without requiring a locking mechanism and features the new Lensbaby Optic Swap System.The Composer features a unique manual focus design which requires more rotation to move the optic as you approach infinity. This makes it easier to focus on objects at intermediate and distant depths than regular manual focus lenses.All Lensbaby lenses bring one area of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by gradually increasing blur. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized creative effects.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
 For those days when you're not feeling very creative . . . March 20, 2009
Jessica M. Sweeney
32 out of 32 found this review helpful
You know those times when every picture you take seems a little flat? Maybe nothing seems worth shooting. Everything's been shot before. How can you possibly put your stamp on the scene around you?
Well, I'm not going to say that the Composer is the magic bullet. But it does help. It makes you see things in a new way, and that's not something you get with every new lens. Household objects, flowers in your garden, the house next door . . . the Lensbaby makes them worth photographing again.
However . . . this is not really a walk-around, shoot everything lens. It is manual focus only. I've had mine for about a month, and the manual focus was easier than I thought it would be to get used to, but forget photographing babies or animals with this lens unless they are sleeping. You'll take 100 photos and one will be in focus. Also, it gets a lot harder to tell when you've achieved focus when you move the sweet spot out of the center of the frame.
In addition, the Composer doesn't deal with photos that have a large dynamic range very well. It's easy to blow out your highlights if you're not looking at your LCD screen after each shot. However, this wasn't a problem I encountered that much, usually only during the middle of the day.
And buy the creative aperture kit! It makes night photography so much more fun when all your out of focus lights turn into hearts or stars or snowflakes. Definitely worth the extra ten dollars.
So, to sum up. This should be your second 50mm lens, not your first. But if you have all the regular lenses you need (we'll call those your dinner lenses), don't skip dessert. The Lensbaby Composer is worth it.
Great lens! December 26, 2008
Andrew Bash
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
The Lensbaby composer is a great lens! it has the same cool Lensbaby effect as the other Lensbaby lenses, but it's much easier to focus as it has a standard focusing ring and the sweet spot doesn't move from where you've placed it. The composer is a portraitist's, party photographer's, and street photographer's dream!
Luv my LensBaby February 17, 2009
TheSpeechwriter (Midland, MI United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Love it. Love it. Love it. This isn't something you'd want to shoot with every time you go out. But for creative portraits, some neat landscapes and closeups, it adds a bit of fun and creativity back into shooting.
Construction is sound. It's easy to use. Quality product and sharp as a tack as far as I can tell.
Stoke those creative juices... July 23, 2009
Busy Executive (Long Island, NY)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Lensbaby is different than just about anything out there - but in a good way. For one thing, it's retro - no electronics, purely mechanical focus - even changing aperture is a bit of an involved process. But for me, it works...forces me to think about what I'm doing, composing and focusing a little more carefully. Sure, putting the camera on "auto-pilot" has a place, but sometimes it's nice to do it the old fashioned way.
The Composer is easier to use than many of the other Lensbaby products. It just pivots to let you put the soft focus area where you want, and then it has a conventional manual focus ring. Some cameras (including my Nikon D300 and D3) can use aperture-priority mode, or you can go full manual as you see fit.
Don't overlook some of the attachments, including the macro lens and special effects attachments. I find that close-ups are especially cool through the Lensbaby.
As for the results, the usual measures of sharpness and optical precision aren't really very useful, so it's more about the creative results you get. I notice the effect is much more pronounced on the FX camera, which can be good or bad, depending on what you're after. But for some reason, with the right subject matter, I've been really happy with the outcomes no matter what I do.
Highly recommended for the price.
Fun, addictive and frustrating December 27, 2009
ksuwildkat (Monterey, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hard 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 cool fun shot and works of art has a mountain sized learning curve.
The double glass optic is a great 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 recommend finding a subject you know well that is also far enough away that you can focus on infinity. Then start shooting with no aperture ring installed at all and the lens fixed to straight ahead. This will give you maximum blur on the edges and the best chance of finding the center focus spot. I made the mistake of trying to shoot stuff 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 moving 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, moving to the aperture rings should be a piece of cake. I have posted some images but they dont really do the product 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 strong enough to lift the rings. I have resorted to using a magnetic tool from my tool kit. I think I got a bad tool because it wont even pick up a ring that isnt in the lens. I need to contact Lensbaby about a replacement.
I cant speak for other brands but on my Pentax K200D I can use Aperture Priority mode and get accurate metering. I cant imagine getting decent results without it so if your brand does not support it, you might want to borrow one before taking the plunge. I assumed 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 excellent lens for portraits and flowers. For portraits you can put the focus on your subjects face and by adjusting the aperture determine how much else is in focus and even how quickly it transitions to blur. Same for flowers . And you can shoot using the rule of thirds in a way the really gives depth to the picture. Traditional lens makers have spent millions preventing focus drop-off at the edges forcing photographers to spend hundreds on Photoshop to blur 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 soon as possible. The difficulty progression is Double Glass, Single Glass, Plastic, Zone Plate 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 just 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 tack sharp pictures, dont get one. Maybe some photographers can capture candids of people or moments with a Lensbaby but for me, every picture is a 30 second or more affair. You have to be willing to spend time both taking the pictures and learning how to take the pictures. In my opinion, the rewards justify both but you will have to decide for yourself.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
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