A while back I confessed that I had acquired a Velvet 56 from Lensbaby. Yesterday I decided to try this lens with street photography and architecture, abusing charming Columbus (Indiana) for that purpose. Of course, all images were taken wide open. Brace yourself.
Above is the entrance of the Cummins Headquarter building. This lens has clearly difficulties here. The overall softness distracts from the graphical elements. If you don’t know what Cummins is making, you can see one of their products below. It is not a space ship, nor a gun.
While Cummins would probably not use this image for marketing, the Velvet 56 does a much better job when there is an obvious foreground. With the rental bikes lined up below, one can see nicely how the lens progresses into unsharpness and how it deals with highlights.
I still like that image, and even more so the image below. Beautiful couple on beautiful bikes.
My favorite is the last one, however. The unreal mini-halos about all the highlights on the chairs complement the mural as if the lens just came out of the bar…
The Inner Frame 