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Lensbaby Velvet 56mm f/1.6 Lens for Canon EF (Black)
Lensbaby Velvet 56mm f/1.6 Lens for Canon EF (Black)
B&H # LEV56CANONEF MFR # LBV56BC
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Product Highlights
- EF Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
- Aperture Range: f/1.6 to f/16
- Singlet-Doublet-Singlet Optical Design
- Soft Glowing Effect at Wide Apertures
- Inspired by Classic Portrait Lenses
- 1:2 Magnification, 5" Working Distance
- Manual Focus and Exposure Control
- All-Metal Lens Barrel
- Filter Thread: 62mm
Lensbaby 56mm f/1.6 overview
- 1Description
- Quick Look: Lensbaby Velvet 56
- Lensbaby Velvet 56
Reminiscent of classic 20th century lenses, the Canon EF mount Velvet 56mm f/1.6 Lens from Lensbaby produces a uniquely soft, glowing image quality that is well-suited to making expressive and ethereal portraits. The overall softness can be controlled by stopping down the lens while still retaining the smooth tonality of a soft focus lens. Compatible with full-frame image sensors, this slightly longer-than-normal focal length pairs with the fast f/1.6 maximum aperture to excel in difficult lighting and achieve a shallow depth of field with controllable sharpness. Additionally, for increased creative versatility, the lens also offers a 1:2 maximum magnification and a minimum working distance of 5" for macro shooting. Housed within a black metal barrel, this lens also features smooth, dampened manual focus control to further benefit creative flexibility. Consistent with Lensbaby's aim of purveying selective focus capabilities and a unique velvety image quality, the Velvet 56mm f/1.6 is a versatile tool that marries classical looks with contemporary control.
- Portrait-length 56mm focal length is compatible with full-frame format sensors as well as APS-C format sensors, where it will provide an 89.6mm equivalent focal length.
- Fast f/1.6 maximum aperture offers extensive control over selective focus and shallow depth of field, and also benefits working in difficult lighting conditions.
- The unique singlet-doublet-singlet lens design renders imagery with a soft, smooth, and glowing image quality reminiscent of mid-20th century portrait lenses.
- Softness can be controlled by stopping-down the lens: when stopped-down to f/16, the image exhibits a smooth quality with greater central sharpness.
- A 1:2 maximum magnification ratio and 5" minimum working distance enable working with close-up subjects.
- Black all-metal lens barrel with engraved aperture and focus markings.
- Manual focus design with a smooth, dampened focusing movement is complemented by engraved focus distance indicators.
- Manual exposure control requires stop-down metering and manual setting of the aperture.
UPC: 850366006044
In the Box
Lensbaby Velvet 56mm f/1.6 Lens for Canon EF (Black)
Table of Contents
- 1Description
Lensbaby 56mm f/1.6 specs
| Focal Length |
56mm Comparable 35mm Equivalent on APS-C Format Focal Length: 89.6mm |
| Aperture |
Maximum: f/1.6 Minimum: f/16 |
| Mount Type | Canon EF |
| Format Compatibility | Full-frame or APS-C |
| Minimum Focus Distance | 5" / 12.7 cm (working distance, from front of lens) |
| Maximum Magnification | 1:2 |
| Elements/Groups | 4 elements in 3 groups |
| Autofocus | No |
| Filter Thread | 62 mm |
| Dimensions (Ø x L) | 3.4 x 2.8" / 86 x 72 mm |
| Weight | 14.1 oz / 400 g |
| Packaging Info | |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 1.25 lb |
| Box Dimensions (LxWxH) | 5.6 x 4.2 x 4.1" |
Lensbaby 56mm f/1.6 reviews
Velvet 56mm f/1.6 Lens for Canon EF (Black) is rated
out of
5 by
30.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Tethered shooter from
Loving the Lensbaby
I bought the Lensbaby Velvet mainly for making flower abstracts and the manual-focus lens is perfect for this. The optics produce a beautiful look. At f/1.6 everything has a soft, glowy blur. At f/16 the subject is super sharp. In the middle, about f/4 or f/5.6, the center is sharp and the rest softly blurred. If you are not accustomed to manual focus and step-down metering there might be a significant learning curve to using this lens properly. Not for casual photographers who use their DSLRs like a point-and-shoot. Perfect for serious shooters who are interested in both the technical and creative sides of photography.
Date published: 2016-04-13
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Anonymous from
I love this Lens
Its a great portrait lens to have those beautiful soft edges we all love. The smaller the F-stop opening the less blur(Bookah) You have. I prefer to shoot about F-4 so that I have one solid point focused and the rest is soft.
Date published: 2015-09-09
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Anonymous from
Lens Baby Velvet
Just finished taking the Lens Baby Velvet for a test run. Ran the gamut of apertures and like the way the lens functions. At f/1.6 the blur effect is sweet. At f/8.0 the depth of field is good and the sharpness is finely tuned. The lens produces a nice bokeh at all apertures and will help to round out my creative library.
Date published: 2016-07-28
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Willie from
Great Novelty Lens
Just got this lens and love it. It brought me back to th days in which manual focus was king. This lens, contrary to what others say, is not that difficult to use. I found it to be rather simple. The good thing is that you can actually see your picture on your viewfinder and adjust before shooting. It is well built, not too heavy and not light. If feels right. The images that comes out of this lens are outstanding. Good lens to have to shoot some unique portrait shots. The bokeh on this thing is insane and very creamy.
Date published: 2016-04-10
Rated 5 out of
5
by
atodog from
Lens baby BABY!
This is the most enjoyable purchase that I have made in 40 years as a photo hobbyist. I'm finding it hard to put other lens' on my camera. The Velvet 56 ads so much interest to close up flower shots with ease. At smaller apetures its sharp to use as any other lens with that focal length. My only complaint is that I didn't buy it sooner!
Date published: 2015-08-28
Rated 3 out of
5
by
angie g. from
I just don't love this lens
I didn't love this lens the way that I had hoped to. At 1.6 I found the lens to be mostly unusable/ the glow was too weird. It reminded me of a bad filter. At about 2.8 it was getting better and at 4.0 the lens was very sharp but I found that it lost it's dreamy effect. I do think this would make a great portrait lens when stopped down but for me that defeated the purpose of this lens. I also hoped to use this lens for macro photography which it was decent for but I had to get so close to the subject that too much light was blocked. If I didn't have my dreamy canon 50mm 1.2 lens I might have considered keeping this one.. but it's going back.. as I find the canon to provide a sharper dreamier image when used wide open. If I want to re-create those distorted blurred edges from the velvet 56 I can do so in post processing. All in all.. this is a good lens but not what i hoped it would be. I have seen others create amazing images with it. I did love using manual focus and will actually do so more with my current lenses.
Date published: 2016-02-07
Rated 4 out of
5
by
ClareA from
Perfect for creative and artistic shots
I wasn't sure how I would like this lens as, with most photographers, I strive for tack sharp in focus images and this lens is clearly not designed to deliver that. What I have found is that this allows me to let my traditional requirements fly and be truly creative. I use it primarily for shooting portraits of children and while it will never be on my lens during the entire time of a shoot, I do like using it to add variety and find that when it is on my lens it almost forces me to be a little more creative and let the rules fly. The name of the lens is accurate - the bokeh does have a velvet quality and the colours are very rich and deep. It is a manual focus lens and while many people recommend to use the LCD zoomed in to achieve tack sharp focus on your subject, I find the viewfinder on my canon 5dmkiii to be sufficient, but that may be as I have trouble using my LCD to shoot through. Additionally when zoomed in, it will help you achieve sharp focus, but you may loose some of your composition if using it for portraits and hand holding it as it's almost impossible (for me, anyway) to keep my hand steady. For the price, the lens is nice and solid, and reminds me of some of my canon L lenses. The reason for the 4 stars is that the aperture must be changed by moving a dial on the lens. I have knocked it several times when focusing. Additionally, at 1.6 the focal plane is so thin I've found it almost impossible to use successfully, although this may be because the only times that I've been at this aperture is because i've accidentally knocked it whilst focussing. Overall, this is a nice lens and one that you can have a lot of fun with.
Date published: 2016-01-17
Rated 5 out of
5
by
The Metatron from
Surprised!
I bought this lens not sure if I was going to like it or not, I have had mixed fealings about other Lensbaby products I own. Turns out it's one of my favorite lenses now! I'm so glad I bought it. I recamend stoping it down to f/2 or f/2.8, somtimes even f/4 if your going for a soft focus effect, f/1.6 is really extrime. From f/8 through it's smallest aperture f/16 it's really rather sharp, although the images are sharp they have a deffirant feal about them thats hard to discribe other then to say it's very pleasing. Don't listen to people out there that make the stupid comment why don't you just use an inexpensive soft focus filtter because they obviously have never used this lens. The look is WAY different, I bought a soft focus filter used it once and now it sits in my junk equipment graveyard in one of my closets, the Velvet 56 gets used almost everyday.
Date published: 2015-11-02
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