More and more photographers I know ask me about my experience with Lensbaby lenses.
I got to know the Lensbaby brand and bought my first lens in 2019: I immediately fell in love with it! I can finally express my creative photography without excesses in post production.
A small premise: Lensbaby lenses give optical effects that are impossible to replicate using normal lenses, I personally appreciate this a lot. They are all manual lenses and this aspect might even be scary, but it is absolutely a must if you want to be creative!
My first Lensbaby lens was the Velvet85, which I chose because I was looking for an artistic lens for my floral photography. It is an 85 mm lens (so perfect for portraits too!) with a macro function as well. At maximum aperture of f/1.8 it gives a beautiful glow and softness that diminish as you close the aperture. At apertures smaller than f/ 5.6 you have a very sharp lens, so it is really very versatile and you can use it in many situations with very different results. So far I have used it to photograph flowers but I have also tried portraits, animals, landscapes ... always with surprising results.
A few months later I bought the Sol45, again with my flower photography in mind. It is a completely different lens from the Velvet85, it is a 45 mm with a fixed aperture of f/3.5. The lens is tiltable and thus allows you to focus at the desired point. The focus point is surrounded by a nice even bokeh. With this lens, I was pleasantly surprised when it came to landscape photography! A genre in which I have not yet found my own photographic language, but with the Sol45 it is fun and I really like the artistic results ... I can finally express myself in my own way in this area of photography too.
I then added the Trio 28 lens to the 'family'. One compact and light 28 mm lens, f/3.5 fixed and 3 effects: Sweet, Twist and Velvet. Perfect solution for holidays or walks if you want to travel very light!
I did not stop with these lenses, but also bought some optics from the Swap System. With the two bases Composer Pro II and Spark 2.0 at the moment I can indulge in the Sweet 35 and Sweet 50, Soft Focus II, Edge 80 and Obscura Optic 50 lenses. The great thing about this System is that you can mount one of the bases of your choice with an optic to the camera body and carry other optics with you, without having an excessive amount of weight in your backpack - great for travelling light!
The Macro Filter Kit, which includes 3 macro filters +1, +2, +4, which can be used separately or together gives me the possibility to use the different lenses also in macro photography - I personally like to get close to my flowers and photograph a detail. I can thus make the most of all the qualities of the different optics for my flowers as well.
Last but not least, I couldn't resist and bought some filters from the Omni system - for fun and special effect photography! These filters can be used with any lens, so even non-Lensbaby lenses.
Starting this Lensbaby adventure gave me so much joy, my quest for personal photography has definitely found a great ally in this amazing brand!
Have I intrigued you? Go to the official Lensbaby website or contact me, I am available for questions and if you live in Ticino also for a practical demonstration. Follow me on Fb or Instagram where you can find my most beautiful shots with these wonderful lenses and follow the official Lensbaby pages directly :)
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Photos taken with a Sony 7III camera and Lensbaby Edge80, Soft Focus50 and Velvet85
