I spent the day testing the LensBaby lens kit I purchased by taking pictures at Skylands. The Composer Pro is the lens body I picked up and it features a system of swappable optics and uses manual discs you place in front of the lens to set the f-stop you want to use. I first thought this was nifty and kind of went with the totally manual process you use with these lenses. My first location was to try some of the optics at a stream i like to photograph. I won't do that again. First i dropped one of the aperture discs in the stream... That was bad enough. I did get it back so no harm no foul. I liked the results of the double glass optic I used yesterday, but wanted to try the others. The pin hole / zone plate optic gives a real antique look like a turn of the century(19th century) camera. The problem was with an effective f-stop of something like f177 The viewfinder is un useable because it is too dark. Next I wanted to try the plastic optic. It gives a very diffuse dreamy look. I forgot to lock the optic into the lens and it fell out of the camera and into the stream. I did salvage it and use it later, but it is so diffuse I struggled with getting any focus. It has it uses and I will try it again. After that the stream was not working for me so i headed to skylands with the double glass and single glass optics installed and got the photos below. I love the ability to tilt the lens... this coupled with the double glass optic gives really nice and different results. It is taking time to get used to how much tilt to use, but I will get the hang of it. So far I would say static objects like buildings and flowers are great choices. I look forward to trying some portraits very soon. All in all I am enjoying the LensBaby Composer Pro and am figuring out when is best to use it and when to use a more standard lens and approach.
*Note - the 2x1 crops i used for these pictures were not a result of the LensBaby... they were my artistic choice for the day.
Keep Makin Art!
Carl
I really like what the Lensbaby Composer can do with shots of wildflowers.
How could I try something new at Skylands and not take a photo or two of the pumphouse!
