Want to inject more mood and atmosphere into your photos? Well, the new Velvet 28mm lens from Lensbaby may well be the answer. The quirky optic is an all-metal, hand-crafted art lens that delivers a unique look that benefits from a sharp focal point surrounded by a glow-style defocus that lends itself well to portrait photography.
The prime optics features a fast f/2.5 aperture and also serves up a 1:2 magnification ratio to deliver frame-filling images of close up subjects. Along with wide-angle portraiture, the Velvet 28mm is also suitable for travel and street photography, along with bringing a unique look to your video footage, too.
Available in a wide range of fittings for both DSLR and mirrorless cameras (Canon EF, Canon RF, Nikon F, Nikon Z, Sony E, Fujifilm X and Micro Four Thirds), the manual focus Velvet 28mm features a closest focusing distance of just 2-inch and features a 8 elements, in 7 groups design with the glass benefitting from multi-coating.
With a 12 aperture blade design, the The DSLR version of the lens weighs 471g, while the mirrorless version is slightly heavier, tipping the scales at 594g. The 28 follows on from Lensbaby’s other lenses in the Velvet range (the Velvet 56 f/1.6 and Velvet 85mm f/1.8).
Available to order from late April, the Velvet 28 carries a price-tag of $549 and Lensbaby shared a number of images showing the unique ethereal glow effect created by the lens, particularly in golden hour light conditions along with an introduction video you can watch below…
