Lensbaby Spark

The Lensbaby Spark is a manual focus lens for Canon and Nikon SLR cameras that allows you to tilt its neck, which is a flexible bellows, in order to change the angle at which light hits your camera's image sensor.

This sample image and the others in the slideshow were shot with the Lensbaby Spark and the Nikon D700.

The Spark is the least expensive Lensbaby available—the next model up, the Muse, is $150, and the more advanced Composer is $200. As such, its build quality is not as spectacular.

The included optic has a 50mm focal length and a fixed f/5.6 aperture, which should make it easier to get a decent amount of the image in focus, but limits your options for creating a really shallow depth of field.

Portrait photographers can really make their subjects pop out from the background using this technique, and it's also useful for drawing attention to a specific object or texture in a photo.

If you've long been curious about the Lensbaby system, but hesitant to pay the high cost of entry, the Spark is a great product with which to start.