Lens baby first attempts

[smee]

Please excuse the dodgy reflections, dirty car, missing grills and shoddy background but was just playing with (another) new toy. Its a lensbaby composer and quite good fun but I need a bit more practice getting the focus and sweetspot set up. All taken at F4 as I couldn't be bothered changing the aperture discs which are held by magnets.

Does anyone else have one of these?








Sorry if there are too many

[Dominic]

Great shots.....



...although they do leave me feeling as if I have a hangover..

[jason]

Cool. Often been tempted to try a Lens Baby, but in the end splashed-out on a T/S intead. Do the bellow only bend on one axis (ie. tilt) or can you put an S-bend in there (ie. shift)?

Be interested to see more results as you get used to it

[jen]

Cool!! I like the first one best! The last two make me feel a tad dizzy though!!

[smee]

Only tilt I'm afraid but I think the new "controlfreak" lensaby allows shift as well, this one works on a lockable ball socket, not a bad wee lens for £125 and the lensbaby2.0 is cheaper but not as good optically. Would like a tilt and shift lens to keep foreground in focus for wide angle shots but fairly expensive aren't they? Anyway I spend enough money on this nonsense, after a telephoto lens and a speedlite that's it for a while, oh and a macro kit for the lensbaby, and a macro lens but that's it....apart from some more filters, and an i.r. remote flash set up and ......, who am I kidding?!

[jason]

Would like a tilt and shift lens to keep foreground in focus for wide angle shots but fairly expensive aren't they? Anyway I spend enough money on this nonsense, after a telephoto lens and a speedlite that's it for a while, oh and a macro kit for the lensbaby, and a macro lens but that's it....apart from some more filters, and an i.r. remote flash set up and ......, who am I kidding?!

Perspective and controlling focal plane are the primary reasons I got my TS. It's a superb landscape lens. Yes, a bit pricey (especially for the amount it gets used, which is not a great deal when you have an 8mth old son ) but I had SIX duff 24-70mm samples so gave up on Nikon's Q/C with that lens, got frustrated, ran out of patience, and pushed the button on the PC/E The TS does nice miniature effect too of course, but just a fun by-product for me.

Is it easiest to set focus and focal plane angle and then step forward/back to get the subject on the focal plane, or stand still and use the focus ring? (I'm assuming there's a focus ring!)

Really look forward to seeing your results as you get to know it

[smee]

Was using a tripod. I think it might be easier to focus in centre then tilt thelense and then move te camera to line the sweetspot up. I was using live view fo focsand also checkin thrugh the view finder but I think I could connect to the laptop fo more accurate results, not handy though.