Lensbaby has launched a new line of selective focus lenses: the Composer, the Muse and the Control Freak. Each new lens features the new Lensbaby Optic Swap System, which features four interchangeable optic options for enhanced specific effects.
All three lenses provide a new way to control depth of field by bringing one area of a photo into sharpest focus with the sweet spot surrounded by graduated blur. By bending the lens, the photographer can move this sharp area around the viewfinder image for customized creative effects.
Lensbaby has introduced a completely new lens with the Composer. The lens is based on a ball-and-socket configuration that delivers selective focus photography with greater precision. The Composer stays in the desired bent position without requiring a locking mechanism, as was needed with previous models. The lens can also focus on subjects from 10 feet to infinity, with the barrel-focusing ring becoming more sensitive as the user approaches infinity.
With the Control Freak, photographers can compress to focus, bend to move the sweet spot and push a button to lock the lens in place. Once the lens is locked, photographers can adjust the fine-focus and tilt.
The Muse replaces the original Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0 lenses. The key update for the Muse is the new Optic Swap System. The Control Freak replaces the Lensbaby 3G.
The Composer retails for $270; the Muse, $100; and the Control Freak, $270. All three lenses come with one optic installed. Additional optics are available, including the following: double glass, a 50mm multicoated optical glass doublet for $85; single glass, a 50mm, updated, uncoated optical glass singlet for $35; plastic, a 50mm f/2 plastic singlet for $35; and the pinhole/zone plate, an optic cup with an f/177 aperture hole to allow for pinhole photography and an f/19 zone plate opening for $35. All lenses feature aperture settings from f/2 to f/22. A set of four retails for $95.