When I got the call to test out the new Lensbaby Velvet 85mm, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect – except perhaps the unexpected. I have owned Lensbaby products before, and each has had its own unique quality.
To me, Lensbaby products have always focused on helping photographers to think outside of the box. Lensbaby lenses are tools designed to make your shots more creative and unique and give them that little extra something that makes clients go, “Ooooh, that’s neat!” Or just to make your Instagram followers wonder how you did that. And while powerful, historically for me, these tools were situational. While I would have never thought to use a Lensbaby lens for an entire shoot. I was always appreciative of having these tools at my disposal. Anything that can distinguish your work in a crowded space by giving that extra something is always going to be a good move. The Lensbaby Velvet 85mm is the first Lensbaby lens I might use for an entire shoot.
First Impressions
Upon first holding the lens, I was immediately impressed by the build and weight of the unit. It has a solid metal body with a fully manual aperture ring that moves smoothly and gives you that kind of soft “click” into place that feels really good. Aperture ranges from F1.8 – F 16. The focus is also fully manual. The ring moves smoothly with nice resistance. Overall, it feels like a lens that pays homage to the vintage lenses of a bygone era. The way the movement of the focusing ring felt reminded me of my old 70-200 zoom lens for the AE Canon series from the 80s. The lens body itself, when used or held in hand, feels more like a Hasselblad lens. So yeah. We like that, obviously. It has a 12 bladed aperture for all you James Bond intro lovers out there. By comparison, one of the far more expensive competitor 85mm lenses (not naming names) contains 8 blades. What is the significance of this you ask? Basically, the more blades, the more circular your out of focus light sources or “bokeh elements.” Lenses with fewer blades produce more hexagonal or similarly geometric bokeh elements, while 12 blades gives beautiful circular bokeh elements. In this case, they are these kinds of soft ovals in the corners. It looks really cool, actually, if not a bit unexpected and unique. So again, we like things like that.
Shooting with the Lens
So with no idea what to expect and not having used the Lensbaby velvet lenses before (they make a Velvet 56mm), I ventured forth to play with my new toy. As I started making exposures, I began to understand how this lens works. Let me try to explain this as simply as possible because once you kind of get how the Velvet works and where it kinda kicks in, it makes this lens a far more powerful and versatile tool. I wish I had done a little more research before I started, but leap before you look right Essentially, the Velvet effect seems to have two factors that contribute to how much the effect will be visible. Basically, the lower the F-stop, the more pronounced the effect. The brighter the image or more “hotspots” or reflective surfaces it has, the more the effect will show specifically in the areas that are brightest. This is very interesting because with the simple adjustment of an f-stop, or just by controlling your setup or environment in simple ways, you can really dial in how much Velvet effect you want. At 1.8 it was very pronounced. At 1.8 with a reflective surface, it was basically everywhere. But let’s be honest: does anyone really shoot at 1.8 unless they want something very artsy anyway? So this dovetails or synergizes nicely. Now, with the lens stopped down to just 2.8, it becomes a more nuanced effect. And just down to 4 or 5.6 it is even less. In a studio setting, shooting around the F11 area, the lens transforms into more of a sharp studio shooter. While the effect is there, it is less tangible. But again, the more bright spots, the more effect. Very interesting. And while I still may or may not use it for an entire shoot, it is the type of tool that crosses from situational to standard toolkit. No small thing.
As a macro, the Lensbaby Velvet 85mm performs, as you would expect. Killer bokeh, close focusing distance of 9.5 inches makes it easy to fill up the entire frame with a very small object or product. The tension in the focusing ring makes it easy to dial in your focus where you want it. The focus fall off, feels slightly more gradual than some other Macros I have used. That is a good thing to me. Overall, a solid macro lens.
Should I Buy?
I could justify buying it simply because of its increased situational versatility. While you have the option to go full artsy with this lens, you can dial it down or season to taste if you prefer. It would have been interesting to really see how this lens works in even more diverse scenarios. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few things. There are probably ways to exploit what the lens does to create more targeted areas of effect. Using spotlights or fresnels, you could literally paint in or pinpoint areas of light that would receive the effect. Even light painting or long exposure shots have interesting possibilities here.
I’m happy to see Lensbaby making some moves in this direction. I look forward to more and more interesting entries into the market from them.
