Most gravitational lens galaxies are early-type galaxies in relatively low density environments .
We show that they lie on the same fundamental plane as early-type galaxies in both local and distant rich clusters .
Their surface brightness evolution requires a typical star formation epoch of z _ { f } \simeq 2 - 3 , almost indistinguishable from that of rich cluster galaxies at comparable redshifts .
The restricted galaxy type range of the lenses means that photometric redshifts work well even with only 1–3 filter photometry .
We make preliminary measurements of the mass and luminosity functions of the lens galaxies , and find they are consistent with the standard model used for deriving cosmological limits using lens statistics .
As expected for a mass-weighted sample , they are more massive and more luminous than the overall early-type galaxy population .