This allows the important part of the subject to be rendered fairly sharp with everything else out of focus, even if it is the same distance from the camera.

[6] Lensbaby lenses have no electronic components, disabling auto-focus when mounted on modern cameras.

In most cases, Lensbaby lenses require aperture priority or fully manual mode.

Images taken with the Original Lensbaby featured a 'sweet spot' of sharp focus surrounded by directional blur.

In 2008, Lensbabies was renamed to Lensbaby and released the Optic Swap System, a modular design that included three lens bodies, the Composer, Muse and Control Freak;[16] each lens body accepted one of four (at the time of release) interchangeable optics.

The Composer introduced a new ball and socket design, which allowed the user to swivel the lens to move the sweet spot, along with a focusing helicoid.

The Composer with Tilt Transformer shipped with an additional, front-mounted optic adapter which changed the focal length by 0.8× to 40 mm and allowed the system to focus to infinity.

The Edge 80 optic produced a slice of sharp focus surrounded by smooth blur, similar to the effect created by a tilt-shift lens.

[25] For the entry-level market, Lensbaby introduced the all-plastic Spark in 2012; it has features similar to the Muse, bundled with a fixed-aperture glass doublet f/5.6 lens,[26] and is compatible with other optics.

[27] Despite the introduction of standalone lenses in 2014 and 2015, Lensbaby has continued to update the modular Optic Swap System.

[34] The Double Glass II (2023) features similar upgrades, adding an internal diaphragm and changing the body to metal.

[36] In addition, Lensbaby also introduced the LM-10 that year, a "sweet spot" lens attachment for smartphones,[37] funded through the Kickstarter crowdsourcing platform.

[41] As a hybrid between the fully modular Optic Swap System and the standalone line, Lensbaby introduced the Trio 28 in 2016, which featured a non-interchangeable turret that could be switched between one of three 28 mm lenses, each with a different effect (Sweet, Velvet, and Twist).

[44] In 2018, Lensbaby announced the Burnside 35, a wide-angle lens using a Petzval design and a secondary aperture to control vignetting and special effects,[45] and the Sol 45, a "more restrained package" with features similar to the Composer Pro and a centering lock to eliminate tilt.

Its simple design consists of an interchangeable optic attached to a flexible tube bellows.

[82] In addition to its modular Optic Swap System line, Lensbaby has produced standalone, manual focus lenses since 2014 which include the optics, focusing mechanism, and mechanical lens mounts in a single, integrated unit.

Lensbaby sells wide angle, telephoto and macro adapters that screw onto the 37mm threads.

Each item in the kit is compatible with all Lensbaby optics except for the Sweet 35, Edge 80, Spark and Pinhole/Zone Plate.

The kit is sold as either pre-cut shapes (birds, diamonds, heart, dripsplat, slots, star, swirly, sunburst, whirlpool) or blanks.

The Composer was the first Lensbaby lens to feature a ball-and-socket style body coupled with a manual barrel focus.

Unlike the original design, the lens stays in position with a locking ring around the base.

Specs of the Composer [111] Lensbaby lenses are compatible with a variety of products and are sold with various third party mounts.

The chart below visualizes the available combinations of Lensbaby lenses and third party camera bodies in existence.

*discontinued D100, D90, D80, D70, D70s, D60, D50, D40, D40x *Camera body needs to have the shutter lock mechanism turned off in order to function with a Lensbaby lens.

The following companies make adapters which have been tested and used successfully with a Lensbaby: P+S Technik, Redrock M2, Brevis35, Letus35 and SGpro.

The Sweet 35 and Edge 80 optics are inserted by aligning them with the dot on the lensbody and twisting it into the locked position.

This gives a shallow depth of field and creates a look where the main subject is sharp and everything in the front and back of it is blurred.

The Edge optics creates a different effect similar to a traditional tilt shift lens DOF.

Current shapes offered in the custom kit are; swirl, birds, sunburst, splat, flower, heart, star, waves, slats.

[116] With the exception of Scout and the stand-alone lenses, Lensbaby allow photographers to tilt the lens moving the selective focus spot around to the desired location.