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 lens, the Sweet 22 Pancake, in my mailbox last fall. As the name implies, it is a fixed-aperture (f3.5) pancake 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.

Sweet 22

To be transparent, I have a Canon EOS R mirrorless, 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 them in my pictures. I like the flexibility this gives me. Another option I learned about 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.

Sweet 22

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.

Sweet 22

One challenge was capturing images where the subject is 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.

Sweet 22

I was pretty 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.

Sweet 22

Sweet 22

And since I enjoy toy photography, I was pleased 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 create.

Sweet 22

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.

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