New Gear: Lensbaby Composer Pro II Lens and Edge 50 Optic
The latest Lensbaby offers serious tilt photography performance
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By now, you probably know what Lensbaby is all about. They make quirky lenses that are capable of interesting optical effects achieved by manipulating certain aspects of the lens itself, like the alignment of the elements and even the selection of the optics. Now, they’re releasing a follow-up to their popular, high-end Composer Pro lens in the Composer Pro II, and they’re adding a new Edge 50 optic meant for more serious shooters.
With the Edge 50 Optic option, the Composer Pro II has a 50mm focal length (hence the name) and a maximum aperture of F/3.2. It’s built into a metal body that tilts, so you can throw the plane of focus to an angle by swirling the front of the lens around on its metal ball and socket. Keeping it centered helps it act like a typical 50mm lens, but once it starts tilting, you’ll see the plane of focus as a slash across the frame. Think of the tilt-shift filter in Instagram, only a lot better because it’s for real.
The Composer Pro II with the Edge 50 optic focuses to a distance of 8-inches from the front of the lens (in close-focus mode), and has an aperture range of F/3.2-22. It has a nine-blade aperture and a total of 8 multi-coated elements in six groups. It tilts to an angle of up to 15-degrees in any direction as well.
Personally, I love lenses like this for doing a single shot in a series of photos. It throws a nice interesting change-up into a collection. It’s also a lot cheaper than a traditional tilt-shift lens. Senior technical editor, Phil Ryan is currently trying out the new Composer Pro II and Edge 50, so we’ll have some impressions and sample images in the coming days.
The lens costs $424.95 and is available for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony Alpha A, Pentax K, Fuji X, Sony Alpha E, Micro 4/3rds, and Samsung NX mounts.
The Composer Pro II with the Edge 50 optic focuses to a distance of 8-inches from the front of the lens (in close-focus mode), and has an aperture range of F/3.2-22. It has a nine-blade aperture and a total of 8 multi-coated elements in six groups. It tilts to an angle of up to 15-degrees in any direction as well.
Personally, I love lenses like this for doing a single shot in a series of photos. It throws a nice interesting change-up into a collection. It’s also a lot cheaper than a traditional tilt-shift lens. Senior technical editor, Phil Ryan is currently trying out the new Composer Pro II and Edge 50, so we’ll have some impressions and sample images in the coming days.
The lens costs $424.95 and is available for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony Alpha A, Pentax K, Fuji X, Sony Alpha E, Micro 4/3rds, and Samsung NX mounts.
