The Lensbaby Edge 80 Optic ($300) is the largest, heaviest, and most expensive optic available for the company's series of Optic Swap creative lenses. The 80mm f/2.8 lens offers full aperture control, all the way down to f/22, and captures a quite narrow depth of field, especially when paired with a full-frame camera. It can be used with most of the Lensbaby lineup, but due to its weight it's not recommended for use with the entry-level Spark ($180.00 at Amazon) .

If you're not familiar with the concept of the Lensbaby system, the Edge 80 requires some explaining. Lensbaby lenses like the Muse ( at Amazon) and Composer Pro ( at Amazon)  have removable optic modules. They are designed to be moved around fluidly, tilting at any direction, which changes the plane of focus. With a standard lens, the front element is perfectly parallel to an image sensor, and that results in a plane of focus that's parallel to the front element. With the tilt capabilities of a Lensbaby, you can move that plane of focus so that it can be diagonal in any direction. This gives you a sharp point of focus with blurred areas surrounding it that would normally be in focus with a traditional focus plane. Just how extreme that effect is depends on how much the lens is tilted, the focal length, your working aperture, and distance to subject.

Working with a short-telephoto Lensbaby is a very different experience than the wide-angle Sweet 35 or the standard-angle Double Glass ( at Amazon) optic that is included with most lenses. If you're using the lens for portraiture, you'll enjoy a longer working distance between camera and subject, which tends to render faces in a more flattering light than a wide-angle lens. If you're shooting landscapes or working at a closer focus distance, you can really exaggerate the tilt effect to get just a sliver of your image in focus. Narrowing the aperture will counter this, expanding the depth of field, in case the Edge 80 delivers too thin of a focus plane when shooting at f/2.8. The Edge 80 is also capable of capturing landscapes in a way that really shows the miniature effect many digital cameras try to replicate through software. It makes real life situations appear to be living dioramas. Sure, this can be done through software trickery, but doing it with a tilt lens gives you full control over just how the scene is captured.

The Edge 80 is compact, but heavy for its size at 5 ounces. It snaps into a compatible Lensbaby lens module with a quick twist. Its front element protrudes a bit, which allows you to easily grip the larger aperture control ring to adjust the f-stop. The diaphragm features 12 blades, so even when you've stopped down a bit, you'll get a pleasing bokeh effected with rounded out-of-focus highlights.

There's no focus ring, but the front element pulls out in order to focus as close as 17 inches, which adds a really neat macro shooting capability. How you adjust focus within either its standard or macro range depends on which Lensbaby you pair with the Edge 80. If you use it with the Muse, you'll have to push and pull its bellows focus system to adjust focus, which is admittedly a bit awkward to do with a heavier optic like the Edge 80. When you couple that with the shallow depth of field that the longer focal length and f/2.8 maximum aperture provide, getting the most out of this lens with the Muse is a daunting prospect. It's much more pleasant to use the Edge 80 with the Composer Pro due to its locking ball and socket tilt mechanism and dedicated focus ring.

Muse owners may want to give the Edge 80 a pass, since it's just a little bit awkward to use with the push-pull focus and tilt system that it employs. But if you shoot with a Composer Pro, and are serious enough about Lensbaby photography to consider laying down $300 to expand the capabilities of your system, the Edge 80 is a solid addition. Its longer focal length may take a little getting used to, but with it you'll be able to get some shots that just aren't possible with a 35mm or 50mm lens. It's especially recommended for portrait photographers and anyone who is enamored with the miniature effect that tilt lenses are capable of producing.

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