Lensbaby

I have been working with the Edge 80, the Sweet 35, and the Double Glass optic lately, and except for the Edge 80, which does its blur differently when tilted, I find that the Sweet 35 is sharper at larger opening F-stops than the double glass. It is my experience that the sweet 35 at F2.5 is much sharper and larger in the sweet spot than the D/G at F2.8.

Obviously the S/G optic and the plastic optic need a much higher F-stop to give a sharper sweet spot than the D/G optic does at a F-2.8.

Am I doing something wrong to get these results? I have checked my viewfinder diopter regularly and this does not appear to be a factor. Since I must shoot in Manual Mode I focus carefully where the sweet spot is placed, I have even used the Scout in order to keep the sweet spot centered eliminating the variables the composer pro may cause.

I am not complaining about the results since I can choose the optic for the shot as needed knowing that there are differences. I just was concerned I was seeing what others have noticed between these optics.

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

It haven't tried the double glass myself but I would expect the Sweet 35 to be sharper than the double glass, only because the double glass is the sharpest of the older style optics (Single glass, plastic etc) whereas the sweet 35 is closer to the qualities of a conventional lens

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celentt
It haven't tried the double glass myself but I would expect the Sweet 35 to be sharper than the double glass, only because the double glass is the sharpest of the older style optics (Single glass, plastic etc) whereas the sweet 35 closer to the qualities of a conventional lens

I agree from my experience with both optics.

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

I'm new to Lensbaby and just got my Composer Pro with the Sweet 35. Even @2.8 I seem to have a larger sweet spot than most of the LB photos I see and what is blurred is still quite identifiable, so yes, I agree. Can anyone give me some tips on how to isolate an object and have everything else around it blurred? I have the macro converters, but have not tried them yet. Also have the Lensbaby book by Corey and have watched everything I can find on LB home site and youTube.

SavvyGal, many of the images you see that show off the Lensbaby's abilities are shot on full-frame cameras. If you use a DX or cropped format camera (i.e. Canon Rebel, Nikon D80, and similar) then you're cropping in closer to the sweet spot. Look at any of those typical Lensbaby images, then crop. The blurred area is going to be a much smaller part of the image. So if you're not using one of the higher-end cameras, that's what you'll get.

Mick

Thanks for your explanation, Mick --- not good news though, since I indeed have a cropped frame Nikon camera. :-). Will probably be shooting everything at f/2.5, but don't know if that will still give what I want.p

SavvyGal, i've the same lenses as you plus I bought the double glass optic. I find Im having a nicer blur with with the double glass than with the sweet 35. I also have dx camera... you might want to try a different set of optics?
The double glass is very similar to the sweet 35 though, so take that as a warning but for the price i don't think you shouldn't buy it.