At the PhotoFair in Newark, CA last month, I bought this Lensbaby Trio from long time exhibitor, Ernie Fenn. He gave me a sweetheart deal on it. They run about $200-$250 retail. This is a nicely made mostly metal lens set. Yes it is a set of lenses. There are three 28mm f/3.5 lenses mounted in a turret. Lensbaby offers these in a variety of mounts including Sony E, Canon EOS-M, 4/3, and a few others. It only covers APS-C not full frame.
Each of the three lenses uses a different Lensbaby effect. There is the “twist” where you unleash you inner Chubby Checker 😉 then there is the “sweet” and finally the “velvet.” My favorite is the twist and if you have followed this blog for any length of time you know I love swirly bokeh.
Twist is a little different than Petzval style bokeh. Lensbaby twist creates an unaltered center area of sharpness with a twisting effect around the edges. Even in focus areas on the edge will get the twist effect. This effect likes having busy backgrounds. The effect needs to have a centered subject. It can create interesting photos with a ‘pop’ to them that catches your eye. Like fisheye lenses, this should be used in moderation, but I can see a wide variety of creative uses even in bridal shots. Notice in the photo of my dog Banjo, his eyes and face in the center are tack sharp. Lensbaby did a nice job on this twist effect. Nice enough that I am considering a longer focal length dedicated lens with the effect.
The sweet lens offers a classic center spot effect where the center of the frame is more of less unaffected by the lens’ trickery. The edges around that center of sharpness are blurred. Rather than the twisting swirl you get a more classic gaussian blur that isolates your subject with our the distraction of the swirl. You can achieve an effect like this using a fast 85mm lens shot wide open, but that lens will have a shallow depth of field and can lead to misfocused images. This 28mm f/3.5 has a deeper depth of field that makes focusing a bit easier but then the soft focus effect simulates the separation of a longer or faster lens. It isn’t by any means exactly the same, but it is surprisingly effective. Notice that my beard on my chin is blown way out but the hairs of my mustache basically the same distance away for the camera are sharp. This lens is going to blur everything outside of that center circle. This image of my tired 60 year old face shows a cruel level of detail that quickly falls off in to blurry land. It can offer that classic eyes, lips, and nose sharpness with the blurry falloff everywhere else, but unfortunately this lens is a bit too short on focal length for those classic Hollywood glamour headshots. On my Canon M6 Mk II, it has a similar angle of view to a 45mm lens on full frame. If you like the “sweet” effect. Lensbaby offers lenses that provide this effect in a wide variety of choices including 35mm, 50mm, and 80mm.
The velvet effect is similar to the classic soft focus lenses I have discussed on this blog many times. This lens introduces spherical aberration to create a soft glow around everything and it is exaggerated around out of focus areas. This gives a dreamy look that harkens back to Hollywood glamour in the 1940s. Unlike the twist and sweet lenses this lens’ effect applies across the whole frame. In my opinion this is the weakest of the trio because the 28mm f/3.5 doesn’t give enough natural separation to keep the in focus areas looking sharp. It does do a great job of taking the edges off my tired old face. But it tends to render the image in away that makes it look like the lens isn’t sharp. Spherical aberration also tends to flatten the contrast which can be good or bad depending on the image. Other soft focus lenses like the Lensbaby Velvet 56mm or 85mm do a great job of separation so the in focus areas looker sharper. This velvet lens is actually sharp you can see the catch lights in my eyes are in fact pin sharp. There just isn’t enough separation.
The Lensbaby Trio 28mm offer three lenses in one super compact and convenient package. It comes in a nice zipper case along with three filters, circular polarizer, neutral density 3 stop, and an 8 point star effect filter. The lens is fun to use and even has a few legitimate uses for wedding or glamour shooters. If you like the effects I would consider looking at some of Lensbaby’s dedicated effect lenses that offer longer focal lengths for the portrait side of things. They also offer these effects in lenses that cover full frame. Keep in mind that all three lenses in the “Trio” have a fixed f/3.5 aperture. You cannot stop this lens down. That is why the ND 3x is a nice addition, it stops the lenses down to about f/10 without changing the effects.
The Lensbaby Trio really is ‘triple the fun.’
[…] Lensbaby Trio – Triple the Fun! […]
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nice article, Rod. It was good seeing you at the show last month. Look forward to seeing you soon.
Respectfully,
Phil Kipnis
pkipnis@pcvisions.net
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