The type of photography that you are planning to use is an important decision factor. Here we have evaluated the Lensbaby Velvet 56 and the Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM for their suitability to various photography scenarios:
Size and Weight Comparison
Size of a lens is an important deciding factor when comparing two lenses.Lensbaby Velvet 56 is the longer of the two lenses at 86mm. The Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM with a length of 45mm is 41mm shorter. Besides being longer, the Lensbaby Velvet 56 also has a larger diameter of 72mm compared to Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM's 70mm diameter.
Weight of a lens is as important as its external dimensions, especially if you are planning to hand hold your camera and lens combination for longer periods. Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM weighs 170g, 57% (230g) lighter than the Lensbaby Velvet 56's weight of 400g.
Below you can find the dimension and weight table of the 'Standard Prime Lenses in Sony Alpha Mount for size comparison purposes.
Standard Prime Lenses in Sony Alpha Mount for Size Comparison
Lens Mounts
Both Lensbaby Velvet 56 and Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM has the same Sony Alpha lens mount. Some of the latest released cameras that are compatible with the Sony Alpha lenses are Sony A99 II, Sony A68 and Sony A77 II.
Lensbaby Velvet 56 is also available in Canon EF , Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon F (FX), Pentax KAF3, Samsung NX and Sony E mounts.
Focal Range
Lensbaby Velvet 56 is a prime lens with fixed focal lenght of 56mm. When it is mounted on an APS-C sensor camera with 1.5x crop, it provides an 35mm (FF) equivalent of 84mm.
Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM is a prime lens with fixed focal lenght of 50mm which has an effective (full-frame 35mm equivalent) focal range of 75mm when used on a APS-C / DX format camera.