Lensbaby leans back to its early days for this three-in-one optic. We had a little play for our hands-on Lensbaby Trio 28 review.
Lensbaby first came to notice with its quirky bendy plastic-barrelled lens that enabled you to manipulate the sharp zone of the image and create soft-funky photos. There have been many lenses and optics since, with some increasingly complex arrangements, but recently the company has focused on lenses with a higher quality build, the metal-barrelled Velvet 56 being a prime example.
The Lensbaby Trio 28 seems to combine elements of the company’s origins with its more recent developments. The barrel, for instance, is metal and has a high quality feel.
But at the front things get a bit more old-school Lensbaby because there are three elements that produce different effects. These are labelled Sweet, Twist and Velvet and you can swap between them just by rotating the end of the lens.
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Sweet produce that familiar soft effect with a sharp centre and Velvet produces a generally soft-dreamy result while Twist adds a swirl to out of focus areas.
The focal length is 28mm while the aperture is f/3.5 and focusing is manual. The closest focus distance is around 20cm. A thread around each lens allows 46mm filters to be attached.
I haven’t been able to shoot any images with the Trio 28 yet, but I got to play with one for a while at Photokina, and it feels nice and solid. The lens movements are also positive, helping to promote the general sense of a well-built optic.
It could be a good choice for anyone looking to inject more spontaneity and fun into their photography.
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Lensbaby Trio 28 price and availability
The Lensbaby Trio 28 goes on sale on 26th October. It will be available in Sony E, Fuji X and Micro Four Thirds mounts. On APS-C format camera the focal length is equivalent to around 42mm while on Micro Four Thirds it’s 56mm.
