Lensbaby

"The Lensbaby Spark is certainly a fun lens to use. It can take a while (or a certain frame of mind) to achieve results that you'll be proud to share, but once you get into the flow anything's possible. Combined with the right subject and light, Spark does indeed spark the creativity and well worth considering. Its round aperture is perfect for really clean bokeh and something that would normally cost far more to achieve."

  "... so far, I really like what I see. While you could argue that all these effects are available in post via various plug-ins, there’s nothing like being able to see it in the field. It probably seems a little expensive to some of you but once you use it, I think you’ll agree it is worth it. Highly recommended."

The "baby" part of the name Lensbaby gets overlooked. But with each new baby, there's an excitement that's hard to contain. The possibilites -- as with any baby -- are unimaginable. You simply have to live with it to find out what your photography will become. The Edge 80 adds another internal aperture lens to the Lensbaby family of optics, one with a mild telephoto range ideal for portraiture but also designed for closeups. It's one more bundle of joy from Lensbaby.

"The true proof is in the pudding, so just mount the device on your camera and see what you can do. All I can say is that it’s a trip worth taking, and while it is not something you’d want as a steady diet it sure is a refresher course for the eyes."

"I recently got my grubby paws on a Lensbaby, and ever since, I’ve been a complete convert. I recently spent 4 days exploring Madrid, and despite of having a lot of expensive glass, I ended up only using the Lensbaby lens throughout the whole trip. "In its simplicity, it is actually an extremely powerful lens, which not only offers a level of artistic and photographic freedom which I haven’t experienced before or since, but it also offers a deeper level of insight into the deepest roots of photography. By instinctively starting to grasp how you can bend a lens one way for one effect, and another for another effect, you develop as a photographer. "I, for one, know I’ll never want to be without one of these things in my photo bag. It really is that good."

Sports photography is a field normally captured by the telephoto lens, emphasizing the action but not the athletes persona. Photographer Axel Heimken's dynamic shots and portraits set him apart from the competition. To capture his unique perspectives, Heimken uses a selective-focus SLR lens called the Lensbaby: "The Lensbaby lets me extend my creative range and capture a more abstract kind of dimension, the concentration that happens in the critical moments of a game."

"Often Mark and I shoot things slightly out of focus, even in our feature projects, to lend the images transitional texture. On this project we sometimes used a Lensbaby to get a similar effect."