Lensbaby Introduces New Line of Lenses for Creative Photography

Business Wire, Sept 23, 2008

Three new lenses - The Composer[TM], The Muse[TM], and The Control Freak[TM] - feature the Lensbaby Optic Swap System

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Lensbaby, LLC (formerly known as Lensbabies, LLC) is launching today an entire new system of selective focus lenses at the Photokina tradeshow in Cologne, Germany.

Three new Lensbaby lenses - The Composer[TM], The Muse[TM] and The Control Freak[TM], - make up the new line of products. Each features the Lensbaby Optic Swap system. The new Muse and the new Control Freak replace the current Original, Lensbaby 2.0, and Lensbaby 3G lenses, which are being phased out. With the Composer, Lensbaby introduces a completely new lens, based on a ball and socket configuration that delivers smooth selective focus photography with unparalleled ease of use.

"The Composer introduces a new level of ease and precision to selective focus photography," said Craig Strong, Lensbaby president and co-founder. "We developed the Composer because our photographers want above all to create powerful, interesting photos. With its greatly enhanced ease of use and more reliable results, the Composer will make it more intuitive for photographers to realize their personal creative visions."

All Lensbaby lenses provide photographers with a new way to control depth of field by bringing one area of a photo into sharpest focus with that Sweet Spot surrounded by graduated blur. By bending the Lensbaby lens, the photographer moves the sharp area around the photo for customized creative effects.

The new Composer retains its position after being bent and is easy to use even with one hand. Photographers do not squeeze the lens to focus, but simply tilt the lens to a desired angle and then focus with a barrel focusing ring. The Composer stays in the desired bent position without requiring a locking mechanism and features the new Lensbaby Optic Swap System. The Composer's barrel focusing ring has a unique design that dampens the optic's movement (requiring greater rotation to move the optic in and out) as you approach infinity, making it easier to focus on subjects from 10 feet to infinity.

All three lenses - the Composer, Muse, and Control Freak - feature the Lensbaby Optic Swap System and ship with one optic installed. Additional optics are available as optional accessories. When a photographer wants to change the optic in their Lensbaby, they simply pop the optic out and drop in a different optic using an Optic Swap Tool supplied with the new optic. Each optic has different features and image qualities, allowing photographers to choose the look that fits their creative style. All the optics feature magnetically levitating interchangeable aperture disks, allowing aperture settings from f/2 to f/22.

The Lensbaby Optic Swap System will include four interchangeable optic options: Double Glass (multi-coated doublet, 50mm), Single Glass (uncoated, 50mm), Plastic (50mm) and Pinhole/Zone plate (f/177 aperture hole for pinhole photography and f/19 Zone plate opening).

The Single Glass, Plastic, and Pinhole/Zone plate optics will be sold individually as well as in an Optic Kit to retail for $94.95.

The new Composer - with Double Glass installed, will be available for $270; the Muse is priced at $150 with the Double Glass optic installed; $100 with the Plastic optic installed; and the Control Freak is priced at $270 with the Double Glass optic Installed.

About Lensbaby

Lensbaby, LLC (formerly Lensbabies, LLC) is a Portland, Oregon based manufacturer of award-winning selective focus SLR camera lenses. Lensbaby was launched in February 2004 by Craig Strong, a professional photographer and inventor of the patented Lensbaby selective focus SLR lens. Lensbaby sells to photographers all over the world through its website, www.lensbaby.com, by calling 877-536-7222 / 971-223-5662, in leading photo retailers and through a growing network of international distributors.