Lensbaby details

Lensbaby details

It took me years to realise that my Lensbaby Muse had an interchangeable lens unit… By that time, I owned a Composer as well, and had bought a couple of eBooks about using the little beasties.

So here are a few operational quirks for the interested.

There are a number of ‘classic’ Lensbaby optics which will fit into all the mounts, but which require a special tool to swap them over. In addition, there’s a fixed-aperture f/5.6 lens supplied in the Spark, and which is removable in the same way.

The most conventional of the classic Lensbabies is the Double Glass, recognisable by the lime green ring round it, and on the side of the mount. It’s multicoated, so resists flare pretty well, and may well be what’s in many Lensbabies that arrive on the secondhand market.

The Single Glass optic has an orange ring, and is uncoated, so it gives a softer and dreamier look, with rather more flare.



The Plastic Optic has a light blue ring, and is what came fitted in my Muse. Even softer… There’s also a pinhole with a purple ring: it’s probably only really useable with electronic viewfinder cameras without a tripod and invoking live view.

Lensbaby recommend that you don’t use other lenses in either the Muse or the Spark mounts, as they are relatively heavy, and will distort the mount – in practice, it’s not a problem as you have to hold the lens to control focus all the time anyway – but it’s not a great idea to leave an Edge 80 in one of these mounts while carrying around, simply because it will keep stressing the plastic tube…

And… How to swap the lenses over. You need a special tool, which is built into the holder that every individual optic comes in (including the current lenses). The classic optics are packed front-down, with their three cut-outs engaged with the three prongs: current lenses are held front up.

To remove a lens, engage the three tabs from the base of the lens holder with the cut-outs in the lens that you want to change, and twist firmly but gently in an anticlockwise direction, around five degrees. To attach another lens, reverse the process. For current lenses (Soft Spot, Edge, etc., you don’t need the tool – just grip the front of the lens itself).

There’s one massive quirk in the whole range: with the Soft Spot 35mm, you need to push the lens unit down into the mount before turning. I didn’t know this when I bought mine, and thought I’d wrecked my new Composer Pro…

Responding to an exchange of messages yesterday, I’ve tried out my ‘macro adapter’ rings with a classic optic for fit (I haven’t tried any pictures yet). Attaching the flush-fitting classic lenses to the adapter is perfectly feasible, if a trifle fiddly. Depth of field won’t be great, and all the usual problems with extreme closeups will apply. Good luck, Fiona!