Review: Lensbaby Composer with Tilt Transformer for Olympus Micro 4/3

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Lensbaby's popular Composer with Tilt Transformer is now available for the Olympus Micro Four Thirds PEN system and Sony's NEX APS-C sensor system. This gives photographers using these compact yet capable cameras the ability to vary their shooting repertoire in a number of ways and in various conditions.

Two products in one, the Lensbaby Composer and the Tilt Transformer are available together for US $350. The Composer is based on a ball and socket configuration that delivers smooth creative effects photography with ease. Simply tilt the lens to a desired angle then focus with a manual focusing ring.

The Double Glass Optic is our most popular optic, providing a tack-sharp Sweet Spot of focus surrounded by blur, with minimum diffusion at all aperture settings. Using this to shoot photos or even HD video renders some spectacular results.

Creating the effect of blurring part of the image while maintaining a section that's tack sharp is a cool effect and can be applied to almost every type of photography.

Street snapshots, product shots, portraits, landscapes and most specially artsy shots can all benefit from the composer treatment.

A neat magnetic aperture ring system allows you to choose various sized aperture rings that can change the effect depending on the light and the subject.

The Composer and Tilt Transformer are easy enough to install on the Olympus PEN and we found that it tool very little time to figure out how it all works.

Patient photographers who don't mind the fiddling around and who are open to experimentation will yield interesting results. Vary the settings of the camera, shoot in black and white or sepia and results become even more interesting.

Choosing the right angle or tilt as well as the right aperture can help denote movement, speed, dramatize a subject or heighten as well as dampen the focal point. The best thing is this can all be achieved in camera for a more spontaneous and natural effect.

One has to remember that with these lenses, focus is completely manual. So, while they can be used in a number of scenarios it is best to shoot subjects that aren't moving too fast (unless you have pre-focused). 

We took the Composer and the Tilt Transformer to the beach and managed to take a number of very interesting landscape shots. The convenience of digital photography is that you can take an inordinate amount of shots without worrying that you will run out of film since digital storage is cheaper than it has ever been before.  The Lensbaby kit allows for a lot of experimentation.

While a number of cameras give you the option for tilt-shift like processing or miniaturization mode, there's really nothing like the control one gets from using a manual lens kit like Lensbaby. You can even get more creative with the bokeh-generating Creative Aperture Kit that replaces pinholes for various shapes to give a number of awesome bokeh effects.

Having Lensbaby's Composer and Tilt Transformer available to these smaller cameras is that it opens a window for enthusiasts that aren't professionals or heavily invested in Canon or Nikon systems to get creative with what they already have and extend the range of dynamism offered by these Interchangeable Lens Cameras.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5