The makers of Lensbaby will introduce the newest edition to their selective-focusing family at PhotoPlus Expo 2015 in New York this week and the tiny lens packs a big punch.
I gave the Composer Pro II a run for its money this weekend on the streets of New Orleans and it did not disappoint. Whether it was an action shot on Bourbon Street, a cityscape from a boat on the Mississippi, an alligator springing up from the bayou waters or a close-up detail shot of one of the city’s historical landmarks, this lens is truly versatile and easier to use than any of its predecessors. Its light weight –10 oz (283.49 g)– makes it easy to carry for a day of street photography or an overseas adventure.
The improvements made to the Composer Pro II were evident right away. While the vast majority of its upgrades are functional, the look of the lens was given a sleek new design with a metal body and charcoal gray accents.
The new model’s tilt function was noticeably more sensitive, making it easier to compose an image much more quickly without missing the moment. Its tilt-lens capabilities lend a unique style to your image, allowing you a slice of focus while achieving a smooth artistic blur throughout the rest. The lens body’s smooth metal ball and socket design provides a fast and intuitive swivel motion to switch between traditional straight lens photos and tilt photography, allowing you to create dreamlike, surreal images with ease. The 50mm lens has a built-in close focus feature at the front of the optic. Pulling the front of the optic forward allows you a closer focus for macro shots, giving you a minimum focus of 8-8.5 inches. Retracting the optic allows for a landscape shot with an infinite focal range. The aperture ring ranges from f/3.2 to f/22 giving you maximum control of your exposure, with darker apertures allowing for a wider slice of focus.
A problem I faced with one of the earlier models of this lens was that it would shift out of place after you had set your focal point, sometimes unfortunately shifting away from a subject’s face to a different point in the frame. The Composer Pro II has amended that by building a studier tilt function which keeps the lens exactly where you’ve set it.
Compatibility
The Composer Pro II is compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System, which gives photographers limitless options to swap optics in an out of the Composer Pro II lens body to change effect and focal length. The lens is available for Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony Alpha A, Pentax K, Fuji X, Sony Alpha E, Micro 4/3rds, and Samsung NX. Though it should be noted that the Edge 80 Optic, Sweet 35 and Sweet 50 are currently available with the original Composer Pro only.
Most cameras will work in aperture priority mode, which worked well with my Canon 5D Mark II, but most Nikon users will have more success shooting in Manual Mode.
Composer Pro II with Edge 50 Optic specs
• Focal Length: 50mm
• Aperture range: f/3.2 through f/22
• 9-blade internal aperture
• Flat field optic (creates a slice of sharp focus)
• Minimum focusing distance: 8” from the front of the lens
• Maximum focusing distance: Infinity
• Focus Type: Manual
• Size/Weight: 3.25” (8.25 cm) high x 2.5” (6.35cm) wide / 10 oz (283.49 g)
• Tilt: up to 15 degrees
• Compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System
• 8 multi-coated glass elements in 6 groups
• 46mm filter threads
Conclusion and Recommendation
I really enjoyed shooting with this lens. The Composer Pro II is a great lens to add to your kit when you’re in the mood to stray from standard composition and have some fun. The fluidity of the ball and socket design made composing each frame pretty exciting as it helped me see infinite ways to compose the same frame with a different focal point each time– as if the lens itself was an active participant in the composition. The new improvements and additions to this Lensbaby make it the smartest and sleekest one yet and give you limitless creative freedom.
