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I’ve always really liked the Lensbaby line of products. Some of my favorite images I’ve shot for my reviews have been while using their Composer Pro II. And luckily, some photographers will find glee with the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II. Your photos will be filled with bloom and haze. In many situations, you’re bound to absolutely love that. But at the same time, just know that you’re going to work quite hard to get your shots.
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Too Long; Didn’t Read
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II is probably one of the most fantastic teaching tools I’ve seen. It teaches you patience when modern marketing is all about getting things as quickly as possible. There’s nothing wrong with slowing down. It can net some beautiful photos! However, the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II teaches patience with very little reward or guidance. And I implore Lensbaby to make some improvements in the future.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Flattering for portraits
- Fun to use!
- Can be very sharp or super soft and bloomy
- Nice aperture clicks
Cons
- Very difficult to use
- I wish Lensbaby had sharper optics at times for tilt shift effects.
- Lensbaby could really do with adding focus confirmation lens contacts to help with things like focus peaking.
- Lensbaby doesn’t recommend using Tilt with this optic, and we found that out very late in the review process.
Gear Used
We tested the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II with the:
Tech Specs
- Focal Length: 50mm
- Primary Effect: Soft Focus
- Optic Swap Compatible: Yes
- Aperture Range: f/2.5 – 22 internal aperture + drop-in magnetic aperture disk compatible
- Included Drop-In Apertures: small/medium/large multi-hole; sunburst creative bokeh
- Minimum Focus Distance: 380mm (15.0in) In Composer lens bodies
- Maximum Focus Distance: Infinity
- 46mm filter threads
- Format Compatibility: 35mm Full Frame; APS-C; and 4/3rds Sensors
- Camera Compatibility: SLR and MIL cameras
- Focus Type: Manual
- Diagonal Angle of View: Full Frame: 45°; APS-C (1.5x): 31°; 4/3rds: 23.5°
- Angle of Tilt: Tilt is not recommended for the Soft Focus II optic
- Diaphragm Blades: 12
- Elements/Groups: 2 elements / 1 group
- Coating: Broadband multi coated anti-reflective
Innovations
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II leans on both sides of innovation. It isn’t innovative in that Lensbaby has long had optics that do something similar. But it’s innovative in that this has the whole magnetic aperture swap system and all. For what it’s worth, no one on the market makes anything like Lensbaby. They’re the closest you can get to real tilt-shift lenses.
Ergonomics
Here’s a view of the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II in the Composer Pro II. Like most of the Lensbaby system, you buy the optic and then put it into the Composer Pro II. From there you can focus with it and tilt it as you wish. The aperture is controlled via the optic.
We’re noting here that, late in our review process, Lensbaby stated they don’t recommend using the tilt feature with this lens.
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II has a fully working aperture ring. It comes in full stops with clicks. That alone makes sure it will be a natural fit for photographers more than video.
When you’re using the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II, this is what it looks like. There’s the aperture ring upfront. Then there’s the focusing ring behind that. And near the mount is the ring that tightens the tilt-shift feature.
Here’s a view of the optic itself. You can remove this and change it out for something else.
Here’s a look at those gorgeous 12 aperture blades.
Build Quality
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II is made of metal, and you can tell that from holding it. It’s very small and I have no issues with the build quality of this or the Composer Pro II. However, I really wish Lensbaby offered a more luxury lineup of products with full weather-sealing. I’ve often found that the absolute best time to use their products is in craptacular weather. In 2015, photographer Nathan Wirth said it best: he only likes shooting in “shitty weather.”
I could imagine myself shooting long exposures with this lens and the soft-focus effect coming out with hard rains, cloudy skies, and all. I genuinely want to take this lens into the rain, but the lack of weather sealing prevents me from doing that.
Ease of Use
Honestly, the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II is a very difficult optic to use. It’s this way for a variety of reasons. Let’s go through them:
- It’s pretty much mandatory that you’ll need a tripod because you’ll have to be super careful about composing your scenes.
- Lensbaby’s focal lengths that are wider than 50mm are often easier to use. But 50mm and longer can give you more stunning images.
- This lens is so soft that, even if you’re magnifying to confirm focus, it’s very difficult to ensure you’ve got the subject in focus when shooting wide open.
- Stopping the lens down makes it easier to focus.
- It would be a million times easier if the soft focus effect could be applied on top of images by twisting a specific ring of some sort. I’m thinking it would be similar to a variable haze filter of some sort.
- The focus becomes more difficult to get once you use the tilt shift effect. Late in our review, Lensbaby let us know that tilt effect isn’t recommended.
Basically, use a tripod and get ready to work for your shots. But with all this said, it can be very rewarding.
Focusing
Focusing with the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II is done manually. You turn the focusing ring on the Composer Pro II to get focus. You can also tilt it to get a tilt-shift effect. Usually, this is pretty simple with a variety of camera types. If you’re not sure if something is in focus then you switch to zone focus or magnification. The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II doesn’t have zone focusing abilities and magnification can be moot. It’s definitely a difficult product to work with. but once you get it, you’ll love it.
Image Quality
There are for sure a couple of cool things about the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II’s image quality. The colors are nice and they tend to shift with the aperture changes. There surely is very nice bokeh, and with the right light you can get a unique look. Photographers who will make the most of the image quality will ideally have a tripod, a lot of patience, and some sort of creative vision in mind.
Bokeh
In the scene above, the blue reflector is in focus. I went from f2.5 down to f8 I believe. The difference is stark. The reason why I talk about this is because, even at f2.5, the bokeh is hard to detect. It can sometimes all just be haze that the optic applies. The haze itself has a dreamy effect that reminds me of what the world looks like without my glasses. Because of all the haze, you really might want to do some post-production to the images.
With that said, the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II has 12 aperture blades. So, without a doubt, it’s very dreamy. That’s more than Sony’s G Master lenses.
Color Rendition
In some ways, the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II is perfectly paired with Leica camera bodies. Leica colors are amongst the favorites of the staff here and they’re superseded only by Fujifilm. For what it’s worth, this would be awesome on Fujifilm’s sensors. But it would only work on the X series as the GF series is too large for the optics here. This is a long way of saying these colors are seriously wonderful.
Lens Character
I mean, come on. This lens exudes character. It’s incredibly soft and not hiding that fact. While that’s happening, it cuts down on issues like distortion and aberrations like fringing. There’s nothing wrong with it in that way. If anything, the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II has lens character that is 100% beautiful.
Sharpness
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II can be very sharp when stopped down. There are sharper optics on the market, but this lens isn’t about the sharpness. If you want it to be sharper, you need to do post-production.
Extra Image Samples
From day one, The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Conclusions
Likes
- You can create some really gorgeous photos with this lens.
Dislikes
- It’s very hard to get those photos.
There are a few things I should talk about with the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II. Would I use it for client work? No. Would I use it for personal, hobby work? Surely. Would I have gotten it in L-Mount? Yes, but only if I shoot Leica or Panasonic. Otherwise, this lens should go on a Fujifilm or Micro Four Thirds camera where a photographer can embrace the fuller creative possibilities. This lens is soft, make no mistake about that. But it also has to be very soft. It will probably make you apply a lot of post-production to get the look you want. In the end, you’ll wind up with a very unique look.
How could Lensbaby improve? Well, I’d like a lens that has both aperture control and haze control. I don’t want the two to be tied to the aperture I’m shooting with. I’d also like to be able to adjust the amount of haze. If that were the case, I’d easily shell out a lot of money for the Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II. What could make it easier to use is autofocus lens contacts to communicate focusing information. But that would require a new Composer Pro system.
Would I buy this lens? Personally, no. Lensbaby has a lot of really cool optics, but this one isn’t for me. For me, the Lensbaby Velvet system is really where it’s at.
The Lensbaby 50mm f2.5 Soft Focus II receives three out of five stars. Want one? Check out Adorama for the latest listings.
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