Pixiq

Lensbaby just announced the newest addition to its Lensbaby products line-up, the Composer with Tilt Transformer, available immediately for Panasonic Lumix G Micro System and Olympus PEN digital cameras, and for Sony Alpha NEX cameras to come in Q4.

The Tilt Transformer allows photographers to mount any Nikon mount lens onto their Micro Four Thirds or Sony NEX camera and tilt up to twice the amount of standard tilt-shift lenses, delivering photos that have a slice of focus through the image, bordered by a soft blur.

The Tilt Transformer also serves as the foundation for the Composer Focus Front. When used together, they become the Composer with Tilt Transformer, for use on Micro Four Thirds or Sony NEX cameras. This provides photographers using these cameras with access to the limitless creativity offered by the Lensbaby Optic Swap system.

The Lensbaby Optic Swap system is the latest from the company that brought select focus photography to popularity in recent years, with its first such lens, the Original Lensbaby. The Optic Swap system lets photographers use such Lensbaby lenses as the Composer, Muse or Control Freak with their DSLRs and insert swappable optics that allow for specific types of looks. These include fisheye, plastic/toy camera, and pinhole camera styles.

The Tilt Transformer's swivel ball is based on the design of the Lensbaby Composer creative effects camera lens. Tilting a Nikon mount lens on the Tilt Transformer will place the slice of focus in different orientations within the image. Vertical, horizontal, and diagonal slices are possible depending on the direction the lens is tilted. Objects in both the foreground and background can be in focus within that slice. 

For example, a photographer can focus on one person close up in the left portion of the frame while also focusing on someone standing much further away from the camera on the right side of the frame. The ability to focus on several items at once (while blurring out the rest of the image) when each item is placed at a different distance from the camera, is typically possible only with traditional tilt-shift lenses or view cameras. The size of the slice of focus is dependent upon the aperture used.

The Composer with Tilt Transformer is compatible with the Lensbaby Optic Swap System and ships with a Double Glass Optic installed. Additional optics can be swapped in and out, providing photographers with a range of creative effects including: Single Glass, Plastic, Pinhole/Zone Plate, and Soft Focus.

A built-in mechanism allows Nikon G lenses to function properly at all apertures. Nikon G lenses do not have an aperture ring on the lens itself. This mechanism allows the aperture to open and close by manually rotating the lens.

Unlike Nikon lenses, Canon lenses use an electronic aperture system which would not allow the Lensbaby aperture to be altered, only allowing photographers to shoot wide open.

I asked Jessica Darrican, PR spokesperson for Lensbaby why the company chose to make the Tilt Transformer compatible only with Nikon lenses, She explained that there were a number of reasons that made Nikon lenses ideal for use with the Tilt Transformer, for use with Micro Four Thirds digitals. In addition to Nikon's lenses being known for their high quality, there are plenty of Nikon lenses in the Nikon F-mount available on the used equipment market. Also, the backfocus distance of Nikon lenses is the longest of all the SLR systems, allowing the most amount of tilt in the Tilt Transformer.

For more information, go to www.lensbaby.com.