I love all my Lensbabies and how each helps me tell a different story, but I am always thrilled when they create new ones. It was a pleasant surprise to find their latest Sweet22 Pancake lens for mirrorless cameras in my mailbox last fall. As the name implies, it is a fixed-aperture (f3.5) lens with a small area of focus and a large amount of blur. If you are a photographer like me, who likes a sharp focus with blur, this is the lens for you.
1/3200 | f3.5 | 100
Take a look at this short unboxing video that will give you all of the features of this lens. By the way, you will see three of my photos in it, which I thought was pretty cool.
To be transparent, I have a Canon EOS R, and because this lens captures images wide open, I get a purple vignette when the light is bright. I understand this isn't true for other camera manufacturers, but for some reason, that is how it is with Canon. Still, I have learned to work with purple by converting my images to black and white, desaturating them, or embracing all the colors in my pictures. I like the flexibility this gives me. Another option I learned about recently is adjusting your cropping/aspect ratio in your camera menu settings from a full frame to another ratio, which will crop out the purple vignette. I tried it, and it does help.
1/2000 | f3.5 | 100
1/80 |f3.5 | 250
One of the things I like about this lens is that it is lightweight, making it a tremendous walk-around option. In addition to my morning walks, when I usually take my photos, I could stick it in my purse to take images throughout the day. That was a real plus, as I rarely have my camera with me due to its weight and size unless it is in my backpack.
A challenge was capturing images where the subject was in the distance. The subject seemed too small, but changing the crop/aspect ratio fixed this! Medium-distance and close-up photos worked wonderfully on full-frame. I discovered I could get up to 5 inches from my subject and get great close-ups without a filter. Adding a +4-macro filter brought me even closer, which was terrific. I experimented with changing the aspect ratio to take close-ups, which also worked well.
1/2500 | f3.5 |100
1/60 | f3.5 | 125
I was surprised at how well it captured flowers, one of my favorite subjects. I could get sharp in-focus centers with the lovely blur merging outwards. I look forward to using this lens this spring and summer.
1/80 | f3.5 | 400
1/60 | f3.5 | 200
And since I enjoy toy photography, I was happy to see how it worked with my little subjects. I experimented using the lens without a macro filter and found that it created a different story than when I added the +4 filter. I appreciate having the option depending on the scene I am trying to make.
1/80 | f3.5 | 250
1/125 | f3.5 | 100
The more I played with the lens, the more I wanted to keep it on my camera at the expense of my other lovely Lensbabies. So, I am glad the day has come when the lens is available to the public, and I can openly share my images with the world. Thank you, Lensbaby, for another gem.
1/80 | f3.5 | 250
If you are curious about the Sweet 22 or other Lensbaby lenses, look at their website. I love hearing from you, so comment below, post on my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, or email me at carol(at)carolvipperman.com. If you have any questions about photography, I would be pleased to answer them.
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