Today Lensbaby announced the previously rumored Velvet 56mm f/1.6 lens that will be available for Nikon F mount cameras. Here are the Velvet 56 basic specs and features:
- f/1.6-16
- 1:2 Macro
- 56mm
- 62mm filter
- Focuses from 5″ from front element to infinity
- Metal lens hood included with Velvet 56 lenses for mirrorless cameras only
- Dimensions (DSLR) 86mm at infinity to 112mm at Macro, 71.96mm diameter
- Dimensions (mirrorless without hood) 94mm Infinity to 120mm at Macro
- Weight ~400 grams
The price of the lens is $499.95 and it is currently available for pre-order at B&H and Adorama. There is also a Velvet SE (Special Edition) version with clear anodized finish, engraved aperture and focus markings that will retail for $599.95:
Shipping will start on April 13, 2015.
Additional information:
Press release:
Lensbaby Announces Velvet 56 — The Most Versatile Portrait Lens Ever Made
Leading Photographers Declare Velvet 56 a Huge Hit
PORTLAND, OR and ST. LOUIS, MO–(Marketwired – Apr 7, 2015) – (ShutterFest 2015) —Lensbaby, providing creative effects lenses to photographers that ignite their creativity and expand their unique visions of the world, today announced the Velvet 56, a new high-end classic portrait lens. Velvet 56 will be on display for the first time during ShutterFest 2015, being held April 7-8 at St. Louis Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri.
Velvet 56 is a 56mm f/1.6 SLR and mirrorless camera lens with 1:2 macro capabilities. This “new classic” portrait lens delivers a velvety, glowing, ethereal look at brighter apertures, and beautifully sharp but subtly unique images as you stop down — with gorgeous, velvety tones that give digital images a film-like, organic quality. Incredibly versatile, Velvet 56 enables photographers to move seamlessly from shooting an environmental portrait, to capturing details in a subject’s clothing or jewelry. Nature and macro photographers will find its close-focus capabilities, combined with effects varying from impressionistic to just a touch of velvety smoothness, provide a set of visual tools that will expand their vision of the world.
Evoking the image style and construction quality of classic portrait lenses of the mid-20thcentury, Velvet 56 features the heft and smooth, dampened manual focus of these early lenses. Velvet 56, with an all metal body, will be available in two colors: traditional black, plus, Velvet SE, a special silver edition. Velvet SE will feature a beautiful clear-anodized finish, along with engraved aperture and focus markings.
Sample photos taken with the Lensbaby Velvet 56mm f/1.6 lens:
