Lensbaby Sweet 35 vs Edge 80: which effect is harder to fake in post, and does Sweet 35 overlap with Double Glass?

Question

I use a Lensbaby Composer with the Plastic, Double Glass, and Fisheye optics, and I’m trying to choose between the Sweet 35 and Edge 80. I like the built-in aperture control on the newer optics, but I’m unsure which adds something more unique.

How different is the Sweet 35 from the Double Glass optic in practice, aside from being wider? Some people say the Sweet 35 blur is less smooth.

I’m also wondering which look is easier to reproduce in post-processing. My understanding is that the Edge 80 gives a tilt-style slice of focus across the frame, while the Sweet 35 gives a selective “sweet spot” look. If the Edge 80 look can be simulated more easily in software, would the Sweet 35 be the more distinctive choice? Or does it overlap too much with Double Glass?

user1943 · Accepted Answer

The effect of the Edge 80 can be approximated in software, but using a tilt lens is generally considered to be both easier and better in terms of actual results. (Real lens blur is hard to fake without a 3D model.)

Whether the Sweet 35 would be too much overlap with the standard double-glass optic depends on how into all this you are. In "mundane" non-LensBaby photography, a 35mm lens and a 50mm lens usually are happy side by side — they're part of a "standard" set of prime lenses, not competitors. On an APS-C camera, the original LensBaby lenses are in the focal length range normally used for portraiture, while the Sweet 35 is a "normal" focal length. I think the less-attractive blur is not because of worse design, but simply a matter of what you get with this construction and a wider angle. Not necessarily bad, but just what it is.

So, between the two, I think the key questions are:

Do you shoot enough with the Lensbaby that you've really come to wish you sometimes had the flexibility of a wider focal length for some photographs? If so, expand your kit with the Sweet 35 — or, if you'd like that a little bit but it's not really what you want a large portion of the time, look into the cheaper but less convenient (and probably less optically nice) wideangle conversion lens for the normal optic.
Do you want to make tilt photograph with the miniature effect a lot? If so, the Tilt 80 is an easy choice. If you only want to do this very, very occasionally, it's probably not a good investment.

Of course, since this is an apples-to-oranges comparison, the answer very well may be yes to both. In that case, I say go with whichever is speaking to you more now, and get the other when a space in the budget opens up again.

Here's an example of an image with the Edge 80:

_{Matbord, by Guffa (CC-BY-SA, as seen in the weekly photo contest)}

You could try this with a software filter, but honestly I'm not sure where you'd even begin. The blur along the bottom edge and top-left corner could be approximated pretty easily, but the bloom around the window, the plant on the sill, and the candles.... I think it'd basically have to be painted by hand.

Lensbaby Sweet 35 vs Edge 80: which effect is harder to fake in post, and does Sweet 35 overlap with Double Glass?

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