Creative, distinct, and blur would be the three words I’d pick to sum up Lensbaby’s latest lens, the Sweet 22. Honestly, though, these descriptors could probably be used to describe any of Lensbaby’s offerings, which have evolved over the years from lenses meant for tinkering to new, simple-to-use models that are straightforward, stand-alone instruments. Lensbaby describes the Sweet 22 as having “the smallest sweet spot with the most blur outside the sweet spot”—it’s a unique effect, and I got to try the lens for a few days just after launch to see what it’s all about.
The Sweet 22 is a stand-alone lens, built specifically for mirrorless cameras and available in Canon RF, FUJIFILM X, L-Mount, Nikon Z, and Sony E mounts. This is more interesting than it sounds, because the rest of the Sweet family of lenses are all separate optics meant to be used in conjunction with a Composer Pro II as part of Lensbaby’s Optic Swap System. With the Sweet 22, you have essentially a pancake lens with a built-in mount—it’s surprisingly straightforward for a Lensbaby. As much as I appreciate the added ease of use, I was curious if I’d feel like I lost out on being able to tilt and control the optic the way you can with the Composer Pro II. The Sweet 22 has a built-in central sweet spot effect and a fixed f/3.5 aperture; it’s a very repeatable, locked-in look.
After using the lens for a handful of days, I appreciate the straightforwardness of it and might even lean into saying I prefer it over working with a Composer and the Optic Swap System. The huge caveat here is that it’s an “it depends” situation; it depends on how you like to photograph. For me, I like the simplicity of a grab-and-go setup and that the Sweet 22 is a lens I can just attach to my camera and go from there. With a Composer, there’s a guaranteed amount of fiddling you need to do to get the shot. That’s part of the traditional Lensbaby shooting experience, to adjust focus and blur placement by tilting and moving around the bellows. The Sweet 22 is just a helicoid for adjusting focus in a linear way. No aperture choices, no off-center focus, no off-axis tilting.
One of the most striking thoughts I had when working with the Sweet 22 was the visual contradiction between using an ultra-wide 22mm focal length and only having a very small area of the scene in focus. How you use the blurred majority is a tricky decision, and depth of field is an important consideration despite much of the scene not being in focus, regardless. With more distant subjects, the depth of field is naturally going to be greater—the blurred edges contain more context and there is a more abrupt transition between the blur and the sharp center. When photographing close-up subjects with the 5" minimum focusing distance, the blurred-to-sharp transition feels more natural since the demarcation can be hidden in the details.
Some of the other unique effects of the Sweet 22 include pretty severe cat’s eye bokeh near the edges of frame and a tendency for flare to creep into the image. If I were reviewing a modern AF lens I’d call these detriments, but in Lensbaby’s world, they add to the character of the lens. They’re features you can use to contribute to the creative mixture of optical anomalies the lens produces.
I think this lens is fun and it’s obvious that is an intentional decision from Lensbaby. It’s the type of lens you’ll either bring as a companion to your “normal” lenses for an occasional creative effect or it’s a lens you’ll stick to for producing a consistent selective focus, character-imbued image with lots of playful, movement-filled blur.
The Sweet 22 lens is available on its own and there is also the Sweet 22 Lens Kit, which includes a nice puck-sized protective zip case, a lens cloth, and a 3-stop solid neutral density filter. The filter here is the interesting piece of the kit and is a smart inclusion, since the lens itself has a fixed f/3.5 aperture—relatively wide, especially for bright, midday shooting. The ND filter gives you a bit more exposure control and can help produce blurred subject motion (in case you wanted even more blur).
I’m not a typical Lensbaby shooter, but I do have to concede that it’s a clever and amusing lens that’s great to break up some palate fatigue of other normal, sharp, and boring everyday lenses. I don’t think I’ll be using the Sweet 22 on too many shoots, but it’s sometimes fun to go out and shoot knowing there’s a piece of gear you must work around, play with, to which you need to match your shooting and subjects. It’s fun and a great reminder to not always take photography so seriously.
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