My Second Lens

Lensbaby Composer System; Pinhole/Zone Plate,
Plastic Lens, Single-Glass Lens, Double-Glass Lens optics.

Technically, I bought my Lensbaby Composer at the same time as my first Nikon lens. I was drawn to it for the qualities of the images it could produce. They were much like some of the images I conceived during the ’70s and late ’80s, which at that time I could only accomplish with filters. Cokin filters to be exact. God bless them, they’re still in business after all these years. It was almost my first choice as a lens, but that would just have been too weird, even for me.

I’m a firm believer that even that which is old and has been bettered by technology can still be relevant, perhaps even more so amongst a sea of new devices. I have a Kodak Brownie Six-16 special I am just itching to convert to 120 film, and possibly even to 35mm “sprocket hole”. The main reason is its simple meniscus lens. So, when I learned about the Lensbaby, and it’s primitive, swappable optics, it was a vintage camera, Holga, and pinhole camera all rolled into one, only in digital form.

It’s a little long on a DX format camera, but that’s OK; all the better for portraiture. Not being an autofocus lens, it forces a Nikon camera to be fully manual. That means no metering whatsoever. That didn’t stop me from getting it however, as vintage cameras, Holgas and pinhole cameras don’t have meters, let alone aperture and shutter speed settings. (Well, the Holga kind of has aperture settings.) Armed with experience, you shoot, and wait and see how it comes out. Same with digital. Only the wait and see part has been shortened from several days to several seconds. So, I have something better than a meter. I have a virtual polaroid. I would have mounted it to the N80 body before the Nikkor zoom, but I really wanted to see if a new autofocus lens would work with an older body. I really appreciate Nikon’s compatibility with older equipment.

Yes, the pinhole/zone plate optic was a must. Yes, it works remarkably well. Yes, I do still see a “pinhole” body cap in my future. The opportunity to hand-craft and improve upon something so simple is irresistible. But for now, the ability to switch back and forth between pinhole and zone plate is pretty cool.

Lensbaby Composer + Step-up/Shade + Cokin A-series filter holder;
Cokin Orange #002 filter for simulating “Redscale”

The double glass, single glass and plastic optics are equally cool. They give me exactly the effect I was trying to achieve with filters 30 years ago. But the quality is much better. The double glass is actually wonderfully sharp in the very center of the image, where it’s supposed to be, with a nice variable bokeh everywhere else.

Another quality I like is the Composer’s use of waterhouse stops, which really slows you down too. To change the aperture, you have to deliberately select and replace a magnetic aperture disk, which fortunately is in front of the lens. So, you have to think. I like all this thinking. Gives my brain something to do while my camera is taking pictures.

Yes, oddly, the Lensbaby is my second lens. But it’s really like having a second camera.