Lensbaby

I'm considering the Composer Pro. After reviewing the online information, I'm still not clear of the specific differences AND capabities between the Double glass vs Sweet 35 vs Edge 80. It would be great to have a side-by-side comparison chart for each optic noting the advantage or capabilities of each vs the other. 

Can some experienced user help answer my question?

Thanks!

I'm not experienced, but I've all three of them.
Sweet 35 and the Edge 80 are both with built in aperture, so you can change your aperture just by rotating it on your lens. The double glass has aperture disks - you can change that with a little magnet and clicking the aperture disc in it. Advantage of this system is that you can get the creative aperture set :)
If you browse through this forum you will find a lot of information about the differences between these three lenses.
The SW 35 and double glass don't really take different images. The effect of the double glass (the blur) is bit better than the SW 35 but not a LOT.

The Edge 80 is a 80mm lens, the double glass 50mm and the sw 35 is 35mm. The Edge 80 is really different from the SW 35 and double glass, it has more the effect of what a tilt-shift lens would do. There are blurs on the edges up and down or on both sides. But the edge 80 wont give you a sweet 'spot' like the SW35 and double glass. The edge 80 also has a Macro ability.

You really should just start with the double glass and then go from there. If you dig the Lensbaby effect you'll end up with all of them anyway. :)

.................
Peter

Ok, thanks and...

Regarding the double glass and Sweet 35.

Double glass = 50mm
Sweet 35 = 35mm

Besides the mm difference do they both have nearly the sharp sweet spot & blur capability?

Besides the mm difference is the Sweet 35 simply easier to use since you don't have to change out the aperture disk?

I'm not clear what is included with the soft focus set and how it works with the Composer Pro Sweet 35?

Finally, instead of purchasing the macro converter or kit, can I get the same or better flexibility using the Composer Pro with my Kenko extension tubes?

Thanks!

Soft focus set doesn't 'work' with the sweet 35. If you're getting the composer pro + sw 35 you take the SW 35 optic out of your composer pro and switch in the soft focus optics! Really easy :)

And yes, like I said the SW 35 and the double glass are almost the same... almost I just like the double glass a slightly bit more because the blur looks better imo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2012 03:51PM by Coco.

Quote
Rick Diffley
<snip>

Besides the mm difference do they both have nearly the sharp sweet spot & blur capability?

Besides the mm difference is the Sweet 35 simply easier to use since you don't have to change out the aperture disk?

I'm not clear what is included with the soft focus set and how it works with the Composer Pro Sweet 35?

Finally, instead of purchasing the macro converter or kit, can I get the same or better flexibility using the Composer Pro with my Kenko extension tubes?

Thanks!

Hello Rick, welcome to the Lensbaby family!

I own all the optics; a composer pro (and Scout for the fish eye optic) for my Nikon 3100, a tilt transformer/Composer for my OM Pen, and I actually I find the double glass optic the easiest to work with; you have the macro extenders, macro diopters, and accessory lenses to bring out a composition and look you prefer. The 1.6X telephoto brings the focal length up, the two wide angle accessory lenses, .6X and .42X bring the focal down depending on the crop factor on your camera sensor if any. I shoot predominantly with a Micro Four Third OM Pen with a 2X crop factor, and these lenses help a lot with focal length management. If I was limited to one optic it would be the double glass with the above accessories.

As far as your Kenko ext tubes, they should work fine, but I prefer the LB Macro extenders as they are designed for this system of optics, and they will get you very close to the subject with minimal loss of light (also some extension tubes may focus behind the sensor). Also with my OM Pen and tilt transformer/composer the macro extenders are necessary to achieve infinity focus with the SW35, Edge 80, and the Fish eye optic. This is not a problem on APS or full frame sensors.

As to changing apertures it is a personal preference between the double glass (or the plastic, single glass optics) compared to the SW 35; I find F4 or larger F-stops to give the best sweet spot and blur. I find I use the F4 aperture in the double glass, and it is the most used aperture in what I have seen posted here. The larger the aperture sizes, 4 to no aperture, the smaller the sweet spot; from 5.6 up the sweet spot gets much larger.

The soft focus, pin hole/zone plate, fish eye, and E-80 optics do not have a sweet spot. (The soft focus is a stand alone optic with its own aperture set.)

I hope this post has not further confused you. Stick with Lensbaby, you will eventually come to enjoy the system and what it can achieve in your photography. Post your work with your LB set-up here; we like to see what others are doing with their Lensbaby.

-------------------------------------------------
God said, "Let there be light," and it was so....

I agree with Peter (Bender). Double glass has a sharp sweet spot with a very creamy OOF. The SW35s OOF is a touch fussy compared to DG, which does work better in certain situations .
Have fun. :)tony