Lensbaby Edge 50 & Edge 80

Earlier last year I went up to Gibbs Gardens to photograph the Daffodils in early spring. They have millions of them planted all throughout the grounds and woods. Definitely, a sight to behold.

I was shooting with the Edge 80 on this trip and just after that, they came out with the Edge 50. I love the Edge lenses because of they are easier to find your focus compared to the Sweet lenses. They create a slice of focus with some blur on each side of that slice. Since this lens goes into the composer holder as part of their optic swap system you can bend the lens and move the slice around to what works for your composition. A really neat thing to experiment with this lens is on cityscapes – depending on how far back you are and how you work that slice – you can make your scene look like a miniature city. Another anomaly with this lens is that everything in the slice is in focus – despite the distance between your objects. The depth of field works differently on this lens than it does on other lenses.

When they introduced the Edge 50 – I was glad since the 80 is such a long length. Sometimes you can’t get far back enough to get your scene in the frame with the longer lens (like when I am shooting at my still life table) so this is where the shorter lens comes in handy!

If I am shooting indoors or in tight spaces, I reach for the Edge 50, if I am shooting outdoors and have plenty of room I prefer longer lenses and select the Edge 80.

I love all the choices you get with the Lensbaby system – sweet spots, slice of focus, velvety blur, etc… So many ways to get creative in camera!