Lensbaby’s Twist effect, which replicates the swirling look around image edges associated with vintage Petzval lenses, has long been one of my favourites of the company’s creative effects. I’m also partial to a wideangle lens, so Lensbaby was pushing on an open door when it announced the Twist 28.

　　Unlike the Twist 60, which is an interchangeable optic that slots into one of Lensbaby’s Optic Swap lens bodies such as the Composer Pro II, Spark 2.0 or Straight Body, the Twist 28 is a complete standalone lens. It mounts directly onto a mirrorless camera just like a conventional lens. Better still, its 73mm diameter and sub-40mm length make it a pancake design, while at 140g it adds very little weight to your kit.

　　Lensbaby supplies the lens in a zip-close clamshell case, allowing it to be slipped into a pocket or camera bag without much concern. There’s a normal rear cap, while the large, slightly flexible front cap pushes over the front of the lens. There’s no filter thread, so exposure adjustments have to be made using shutter speed, ISO or exposure compensation and not ND filters.

　　Lensbaby Twist 28 Design and handling Like other Lensbaby lenses, the Twist 28 has no electrical contacts and it’s manual-focus-only. Consequently, you may need to enable your camera’s ‘shoot without lens’ setting before it will fire the shutter. The camera also can’t record the lens or aperture information in the image EXIF data, although with the aperture fixed at f/3.5, there isn’t much to remember.

　　There’s just one control, the ridged manual focus ring. It turns smoothly and the 20cm minimum focusing distance encourages you to get close to your subject.

　　As the camera doesn’t detect the lens, moving the focus ring won’t automatically trigger a magnified view. I recommend customising a camera button to magnify the area under the focus point, and positioning that point at the centre of the frame. Focus peaking can also help, but magnification gives a more reliable indication.

　　Unlike the Composer Pro II and Spark 2.0, the Twist 28 can’t be tilted to move the area of sharp focus around the frame. Instead, the sharpest region stays in the centre, which has a significant impact on how you compose your images.

　　Lensbaby Twist 28 Getting the Twist The swirling effect around the edges of the frame is strongest when there’s reasonable separation between the subject and its background. Going close to your subject with a detailed background around 30cm or more behind it can produce a pronounced twist, whereas a very distant background tends to look soft rather than obviously swirled. Plain backgrounds don’t reveal much of the effect either, so it pays to look for contrast, colour and texture such as foliage, flowers, lights or architecture.

　　This means the lens makes you think differently about composition. Rather than worrying about putting your subject on a thirds intersection, it usually makes sense to keep it central and concentrate on its relationship with the background.

　　The effect is more dramatic on a full-frame camera because a smaller sensor crops away some of the swirling outer area. With the Sweet 22 I often find myself considering a square crop, but with the Twist 28 I’m more inclined to retain the full frame because those swirling edges are an important part of the image.

　　Lensbaby Twist 28 Image quality Sharpness is a relative concept with the Twist 28. When the focus is nailed, the central area records useful detail, but this isn’t a lens for examining 60-million-pixel files at 100% and getting picky about the finer details. Its appeal lies in the whole image and the way the softer, twisted edges, often with strong vignetting, funnel attention towards the subject.

　　Used thoughtfully, the Twist 28 can add movement and atmosphere without completely overwhelming the subject. As ever with a Lensbaby, the key is to stop expecting conventional optical perfection and enjoy what the lens does differently.

　　Twist, Sweet or both? Lensbabys Sweet 22 and Twist 28 are remarkably similar physically: both are compact 140g pancake lenses with a fixed f/3.5 aperture and central sweet spot, but their rendering is distinctly different. The Sweet 22 surrounds its sharp centre with stretched, dramatic blur, while the Twist 28 produces the circular swirl associated with Petzval-style optics. The 22mm lens also offers a wider view, while the Twist’s 28mm perspective feels a little more natural for people photos. They’re alternatives rather than replacements, and creative photographers can easily find room for both.

　　Lensbaby Twist 28 Verdict The Lensbaby Twist 28 is a small, simple lens that can make familiar subjects look refreshingly different. Its fixed central sharp region dictates how you compose, while the strength of the swirl around the edges depends heavily on subject and background distance, so there’s an enjoyable learning process involved. I particularly like the wider 28mm perspective, which gives the Twist effect room to develop around the subject. It won’t suit photographers seeking technical perfection, but for anyone who enjoys experimenting in-camera, it’s great fun and easy to carry everywhere.

　　Lensbaby Twist 28 Full Specifications Scroll to see more →

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