If you are a seasoned shooter, you may have already heard of Lensbaby and the variety of products they make. But like me, you probably have never used any of them.
Most of the time, I am shooting out in the field were things move very quickly, so I have always overlooked manual lenses for faster, more modern autofocus alternatives. So when I was asked to give a few of the Lensbaby lenses a try, I was a bit hesitant but decided to give it a go anyway.
I was sent an assortment of lenses including the Velvet 56, Velvet 85, Twist 60 and the Composer Pro II with interchangeable optics (the Sweet 50 and Edge 50). To be perfectly honest, I was a little overwhelmed on how to thoroughly review this many lenses at once. Normally, I get one lens at a time so it is a little easier to develop a plan on how to put a particular lens to the test.
But after becoming familiar with all of them, it became apparent that they all share many of the same characteristics. So I thought it would be best to put them into two groups. The first group being the Velvet 56 and 85 — which I review below — the latter being the Composer Pro with both optics and the Twist 60 — which will be featured in part two of this review. The common theme to all of these lenses is that they cast some sort of “distortive” effect to a portion of the frame. Full disclosure: I am not going to get all “techno geek” and bust out distortion graphs and chromatic aberration charts. These lenses are intended to give an “artistic” feel to your photos so a lot of that goes right out the window anyway.
Velvet 56 () and Velvet 85 ():
Build Quality:
The first thing you will notice about this duo of “velvet” lenses is the build quality. These lenses are something of a throwback to the old days when metal construction manual lenses were king. They both feel solid and refined in hand, but are in no way too heavy for everyday use. The focus ring is smooth and firm. The aperture ring is well designed as it “clicks” into place at each stop to avoid unintentional movement. Overall these lenses have fantastic build quality, especially when you factor in the sub $500 price tags.
Performance:
Let’s cut to the chase: how do the Velvet 56 and 85 perform? What makes these duo lenses different? And why would I purchase one? First and foremost, you have to change your thought process when shooting to capitalize on these lenses’ unique and powerful characteristics. To be perfectly honest, I struggled a bit when I first used each of them. Unlike most automatic lenses that you can unbox, mount on your camera, and just go shoot, these lenses have a bit of a learning curve. The 56 and 85 are designed to give a “Velvet” (or soft focus) effect to your images. The key for me was when I realized that this velvety effect is extremely pronounced throughout the image when the lens is wide open. As you stop down past f8, the velvet effect is almost nonexistent and you are left with very sharp image. The trick for me was to keep my aperture in the F2.8 to 5.6 range and change other settings such as ISO and shutter. Sticking to this principle, I found it quite easy to get some very good images that were sharp where I wanted it and “dreamy” around the edges. Now, I know that these days you can add a filter to your lens or manipulate your image in post to achieve this effect, but both of these lenses definitely do it better.
Conclusion:
The thing that stood out to me most was how flexible these lenses are at a range of apertures. In a matter of seconds, you can have a dreamy, ethereal looking images or a razor sharp images just by rolling the aperture ring. Now manual focus may not be for everyone, but if a manual focus lens is in your future, either of these lenses would be a great addition to your bag.
Pros:
Great Build Quality
Inexpensive
Like having 2 different lenses on at the same time (dreamy and sharp depending on aperture)
Very sharp when stopped down
Cons:
Lenses are too soft (for practical use) when you are F2.8 or under
No camera-lens communication
Small learning curve on how to optimize lens for your workflow
In part two of this series, I will take on the Composer Pro II with two interchangeable optics (the Sweet 50 and Edge 50), and the Twist 60.
