Lensbaby Composer for Micro Four Thirds Digital Cameras with Tilt Transformer

The lensbaby works as promised and is only slightly awkward in use. The special effects possible with a tilt/shift lens of a visual "slice" of in focus area with other areas moving to blur is easily achieved with the lensbaby, but without the control of a genuine tilt/shift lens, (which of course has use in everything from tabletop to landscape work, but is very much more expensive). Having a nikon mount option at the end (instead of the included simple lens) allows for longer lens use, magnifying the effect, and providing a much sharper in focus area. It can be a gimmicky look at times, but the lens is fun and easy to use, and not too pricey for what it does.

Although an adapter is in the works, some optics like fisheye and soft focus will not focus with this unit. Also, I note older nikon lenses fit fine, but some others will not click into the mount. Apparently the pin on the lensbaby is a little over size.

Easy to assemble. Easy to use. I have not mastered it yet, so I can't speak to that. The tilt-shift part is the perfect balance of firm enough to stay put and not too firm to be difficult to adjust. It works great with the composer lens and its also super easy to change the composer to a Nikon F-mount lens. I tried my 35mm prime and it gave great results. I have yet to put a 180mm on it to see what that does.I've been jealous of these for a while and was super excited when Lensbaby announced the micro 4/3 mount. Its everything I hoped it would be.I am a hobbyist photographer and no expert. I've had my Olympus EP-1 for about 6 month.

You can't go wrong giving photographers and photography enthusiasts more options for creativity, and the Lensbaby Composer covers a gap that (as far as I can tell) has been lacking for Micro 4/3 shooters.For me, I've never had much luck with tilt/focus effects. It's not a problem with the hardware, it's me, and it's generally not a style I love, anyway. The people who do it right really hit home runs, but I haven't been a fan of most of the stuff I've seen, and especially of the stuff I've shot myself.The Lensbaby Composer does a good job on its own, as long as the person using it has the eye to use tilt/focus effects well.It's relatively sturdy, though it feels mostly made of plastic (some of my favorite all time lenses are made out of plastic!), it feels pretty solid and reliable. I wouldn't go jumping out of airplanes with it on, but for portraitures or general usage, it'll stand up as well as anything else out there.The movement is solid but smooth. Once you leave it in place, it's locked there for the duration. No worries about it flopping around uselessly.Photos are okay with it, but I shoot a lot of video on my Panasonic GH1 and thought I'd give it a try. Reviewing the video afterwards, I mostly ended up with a headache. I think it's safe to say that you're pretty much confined to a tripod if using this for video work.For what it is, the price might be a tad high, in my opinion, but then again I'm not huge on the type of effects it provides, so others might find far more value in it. Lensbaby branded items tend to be a little pricier, so it shouldn't be a surprise. I've heard good things about their after-purchase support, so that might be worth it on its own for some people.All-in-all, it does what it does well and is pretty decently built. If it's what you're looking for, then it's a safe bet you'll be very happy with it.

i get the most compliments on photos taken with this lens than with any other, and i own quite a few. super fun to use. i have never changed the aperture discs since i put the first one in, so it's pretty much always wide open, taking advantage of the shallow depth of field (which is kind of the point of a lens like this.) great lens, worth every penny.

I am a photographer who spent several years as a working wedding photographer and I now mostly do product photography at work and enjoy taking family photos at home. The Lensbaby family of lenses are essentially low-cost tilt-shift lenses that allow you to alter the focal plane of you image. Translation: this lens allows you to selectively alter the areas of your composition that you want to be in focus.The Lensbaby Composer for Micro Four Thirds Digital Cameras with Tilt Transformer takes things one step further by allowing you to connect Nikon lenses to you Micro Four Thirds camera and do the same thing ... essentially letting you swap out the cheap optics of the Lensbaby Composer and letting you turn quality Nikon glass into a tilt-shift lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras.I tested this lens on my Olympus E-PL1 and I really enjoyed the look of the Composer images. The only thing I don't like about the composer are the aperture disks that you have to physically insert and remove in order to change the aperture. Considering the cost of the Composer it's obvious that Lensbaby could have made an internal diaphragm aperture so you could adjust the aperture with a twist of your wrist.It's much easier to adjust the aperture on Nikon lenses using the Transformer, but mounting Nikon lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras is much bulkier than the tiny Lensbaby Composer.Amateur photographers might not get enough value out of this to warrant the price, and the aperture disks suck, but if you want the creative flare that a Lensbaby offers then this is a great solution for Micro Four Thirds camera owners.

what a fun toy, I love that it comes apart and lets you mount Nikon lenses as well