Lensbaby Composer Pro + Sweet 35 optic review

A little while ago I wrote about receiving a Lensbaby lens.
Now that I finally got the chance to use lens during a few shoots, it's time to write a review!

First of all, what is Lensbaby?
Lensbaby describes itself as an independent camera lens manufacturer that creates and sells creative camera lenses.
Lensbaby makes lenses for all major camera brands like Canon, Nikon and Sony (and more!).
Or, as I'd like to describe Lensbaby: Lensbaby is a lens manufacturer which makes these wicked lenses that deliver photos with effects which are truely hard if not impossible to create in Photoshop.
The best part that Lensbaby doesn't make lenses exclusively for one brand, but for pretty much all major camera brands! No reason to feel left out.

What did I get?
The lens I received from Lensbaby is the Composer Pro with Sweet Optic 35.
I always pay attention to detail and I loved how Lensbaby packages their products. This particular lens came in a cute little square box with a manual (saying 'MAMA? Congratulations! It's a Lensbaby!', so adorable!) and the lens in a dust bag.

How does it work?
This was the part I was most worried about when I got the lens. Attaching the lens to my camera body was no problem at all. It works just like any other lens.
After attaching the lens to the body and putting the camera on you'll notice the aperture says 00 or nothing at all. This is because you have to change the aperture on the lens itself. No biggie. But this does mean you have to shoot on manual mode or aperture priority mode. (I shot with Canon by the way, as far as I know, Nikon or Sony use a different mode).

Focussing is when the trouble came for me.
You're required to manually focus. I'm not used to this because I love using a wide aperture and don't fully trust my eyes. Which made this a difficult project for me.

The first time I tried to use the lens I immediatly turned the aperture to f2.5 because obviously I love little focus.

The first time I used my Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35 Optic.

Not a fantastic idea as you can see in the picture above. As you can see, the bracelet is sharp, not the girl's head or the hands (I was trying to get either one, but at least NOT THE BRACELET).

The thing is, before you start rotating/tilting the lens around, you have to get the point sharp which you want to have sharp. There isn't much of the creative effect visible at this point. When you start tilting you have to keep an eye on that sharp spot (or sweet spot as Lensbaby calls it). I lost it rather soon which is why I got this effect.
Also, I noticed that if you tilt too far to one side, you get a nasty vignette in the opposite corner. So it's always better to stay safe and not tilt too far away.

So the first try-out was a fail, then what?
I'm not giving up at least!

Second try with the Lensbaby lens.

Model: Kari, MUA/H: Pascale Hoogstraate, Headband: Anni Jürgenson

This shot was taken a few weeks later (an outtake from the Touche de Noir shoot). Again with a wide aperture but not tilting as far as previous time. Despite that this one is sharp, I discovered a new problem: the 35mm. I love making portraits and close-ups, but when I get too close I get a distortion with the Sweet 35 optic. It's already a bit visible in this photo. The solution is simply to crop the photo afterwards in Photoshop instead of getting closer to the model during shooting itself. So it's easily fixable.

The photo below is another try with wide aperture.

A try out during the shoot of "The caterpillar's sister"

Model: Sara,  MUA/H: Pascale Hoogstraate, Dress: Eva Bellengé

I decided to bring the Lensbaby lens with me during The caterpillar's sister shoot. I'm rather pleased with the result above and I finally found out how to work with the lens.

It really is a point - focus - tilt - shoot! system, to sum it up quickly. And most importantly is that you have to take your time. The model in the picture above moved around quickly and I really had to ask her to slow down a bit, so I could properly focus. That's the key to properly manually focus.

Concluding...

Take your time to discover this lens' system... And go through the manual included in the package. I didn't, but I really should've. It would've saved me a lot of trouble. Like, it even says in the manual that it's better to start out with an aperture of f4 or f5.6 (instead of the bloody f2.5 which I used).

However, the smaller the aperture, the less of a creative effect you have. Unless you tilt it all the way to one side and bear with the vignette you'll get.

My most recent photo taken with the Lensbaby lens.

Model: Kari

The picture above was taken yesterday. I wanted to get her right eye (left on the photo for viewers) sharp and I managed. I took this photo with aperture f8, tilted a rather far to the left (got out of the safe zone again) and am still okay with the sharpness. Aperture definitely makes a difference.

The Composer Pro is a fantastic system. It's a refined version of the Composer and smoothly rotates around. You can make tiny smooth steps so you can follow exactly where your sweet spot is moving to, which is exactly what you need when you have bad eyes like I have!

The Sweet 35 is a fun optic with an idea of movement. I tried to copy this effect with Photoshop but never got the perfect smoothness which the lens itself creates.

This lens definitely is a fun addition to your standard lens family in your bag. It takes up hardly any space at all -it's the same size as Canon's 50mm f1.8 lens- and is nice to use every now and then. I wouldn't recommend using it every shoot you have since you'll grow tired of it. Unless you have any of the other optics that is of course.

Other optics?
Lensbaby makes different kind of lenses (different ways of how to tilt your lens), and several optics (like Fisheye, soft focus, double glass and single glass).
Again, the one I received was the Composer Pro with Sweet Optic 35.

I'd say go to Lensbaby.com and discover more of these different SLR Lenses and optics! This site provides a lot of information on the products but also neat videos and instructions on how to use the systems. The best part? It has a webshop and provides free shipping within the US.

Viorella

PS. Yes, I will definitely use my Lensbaby lens more often in the future!