At the last Pepcom show of 2009 I met with the folks from Lensbaby who were kind enough to provide Testfreaks with a few samples to review. Today I will be looking at the first of these products – the Lensbaby Composer, which is a DSLR lens housed in a ball and socket configuration.

Solid build; Simple to use; Helps stir the creative juices

Expensive; Need to be able to manage manual DSLR settings

With a magnification ratio of 0.15x, this lens is no macro lens but the magnification can of course easily be increased with extension tubes.

Bored with your photography? Tired of getting exactly what you expect from your fancy pants DSLR ? Want to revisit the myster of your film days with cameras like the Diana and Holga? Then come on it, the world of the Lensbaby awaits you, baby.

As a professional photographer you know that part of your success depends on differentiating yourself from your competition. So I would like to introduce you to a new and interesting addition to the Lensbaby lineup of optics, the Composer.

Having experimented with the Double Glass and Pinhole Optic, today I slipped the Plastic Optic into my Lensbaby Composer and headed out on my "go-to" Photowalk - Fort Brockhurst to Priddys Hard.Unfortunately the light was very grey and flat - typical overcast English Weather.

Over 3.5 years ago I reviewed the Lensbaby 2.0 - the second incarnation of the original Lensbaby that was created almost 6 years ago. The original Lensbaby was a 50mm f/2.8 single-element lens in a flexible "bellow" lens barrel.

Exceeded expectations and excellent seller. Answered every single question with detail and went out of his way to sweeten the deal.The lens was exactly as specific, takes beautiful pics, as expected, and did not disappoint with either shipment speed or packing quality.

The Composer is the best of the Lensbaby line thus far. It offers the smoothest transition from traditional lenses to the Lensbaby. It is quick and easy to bend and focus. The new optic swap system is very easy to use.

Easy to change optics; Fast focusing, and easy to "bend"; Locks in place for landscapes and HDR work

Would like it to focus closer

Really good, nice effects, will take some getting used to regarding the sweet spot placement, but that'll eventually happen.

Designed for interchangeable-lens SLR cameras, Lensbaby lenses are suite of replacement lenses that combine a simple optical system with an adjustable bellows that allows selective focus photography.