I’ve been coveting the new Lensbaby Velvet 28mm lens for more than nine months now, but I finally caved and ordered it. Originally I thought I’d pick it up in Portland in December, you know…when I was going to go to that conference that isn’t happening….because of that pesky pandemic. And then there is that rioting that’s been happening in Portland. And of course, if that wasn’t all enough of a deterrent for going down to buy the lens the border is closed anyway.
But a camera store in Calgary does stock Lensbaby lenses….or at least is willing to bring them in at a reasonable price (not that these specialty lenses are really reasonably priced at all). As a bonus, there is no provincial sales tax in Alberta, and shipping was free, so I actually ended up saving money by having them import it rather than order it from the manufacturer directly; a little over $100 saved in fact.
So, it arrived today, on a warm and sunny day when there are still wonderfully colourful things in my yard that have not yet all been turned brown and mushy and been battered to the ground.
The Lensbaby lenses are a bear to work with. They don’t talk to the camera’s computer, so they are manual in all ways. Opened up wide, they are a tack sharp lens, but that’s not what makes them special, that’s the boring aspect of them.
They are extremely soft lenses when stopped all the way down, which is what makes them so creative and interesting to work with. But it’s also another aspect of what makes them so challenging to work with, since little of the information you are used to using in your camera’s sensor are accurate.
The thing has heft. Made entirely of metal and glass, all of the Lensbaby lenses are sturdy and heavy for their size.
What is also wonderful about them all is that they make you slow down and see the world a little differently, and you never really know what you have until you get it off the camera and onto the computer. The images that come out of them are dreamy and ethereal. They have a mood to them that you just can’t get with a typical lens, and which simply isn’t to everybody’s taste.
I see many happy adventures ahead with this newest member of the family.
In a turn of luck, one of the photos that I was trying to take, of a sea oats grass at the back of the yard backlit by a low beam of sunshine, turned into a spectacular black and white image.
Yes, I think I am going to like this lens 🙂
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