Competition for Atlas? Laowa Proteus 2x Anamorphics!

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After the Nanomorphs, Laowa is bringing out Proteus, a 4-lens set of 2x S35 anamorphics in hopes of rivaling the Atlas Orions. In this episode I'll take a close look at their 35 and 45mm, as well as compare it to the Orion 40mm!
Laowa's Website
www.laowalense...
Check out Bucketheads, the Star Wars set for the tests: @TransmutePictures

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

1 - The lens is not misaligned. I'd look like garbage if it was. The issue here is my kitchen (where I put the tripod) is not level with the glass doors in the background, so the doors always look slanted if I level the camera for the kitchen. And if I level the camera for the doors, then I look like I'm off-level. It's a perk from the new apartment. You can check previous videos and you'll notice the same thing in different degrees. 2 - The project I was filming behind the scenes is Bucketheads, a fan-made project set in the Star Wars universe. They're all volunteers and the results always come out mindblowing: Go check them out! www.youtube.com/@TransmutePictures

[@nadamuchu]

it's not a bug, it's a feature.

[@satan5259]

I know I'm not the target demographic for Proteus, all of my DIY 1.33x, 1.5x and 2x lenses + VDs in total cost less than one Proteus, but I cannot stop from hyperfocusing on the artificial single line flares. It feels like Laowa are accustomed to making their spherical Zero-D lenses, and they can only bring themselves to add one flaring coating to one lens surface that creates the monochromatic infinite line type flare, and they do even that reluctantly, because they might be missing the point on what makes people want the flares. Other than that it looks great, but the flare makes me feel like they aren't entirely understanding their target demographic, a kind of "how do you do fellow kids" is leaking through.

[@georgewoolf6300]

Seems the blue and amber have the straight line flares, but the silver Proteus flares much more natural yet less. I love the Orion flares and the Proteus silver are closer to masterprime flares.

[@buddyfx7026]

That back focus.. love it! I remember ENG camera lenses having this and have always wondered why companies don't do this for their more "premium lenses." Hopefully this makes other companies consider when moving forward. I hate changing shims because it's not hard, just time consuming.

[@Tcivan]

Pincushion distortion is much better than barrel distortion for anamorphics. They have a tendacy to bloat faces. The pincushion fights the “camera adds 10lbs” effect.

[@willchao1733]

Here's a reminder that Samyang is trying to sell Xeen Anamorphic for $20k

[@robertpdavenportii2908]

Thanks for doing this additional review Tito. I can not say I'll be saving up for this $20,000 four lens set. I was underwhelmed by their focus breathing, color fringing, lackluster flaring, and overall softness despite the really fantastic focus adjustment innovation. I am a dedicated small crew MFT shooter so these huge lenses are not likely to make it anywhere near my wish list or even my special project rental list. I am happy to see a new anamorphic lens that is not part of another full frame set. I was really liking the oval bokeh you demonstrated and would have loved to see some examples of it with city bg lights where it is most effectively used in narrative film making. I think this set will land well for the small niche of medium sized filmmakers but out of reach for lower budget productions. So for the present and near future I'll have to settle for the visibly sharper and far more affordable 1.66 world of MFT anamorphic shooting that my Sirui lens set delivers.

[@directed_by_steve]

I love this channel. This would be perfect for the FX30. I was thinking 35mm and 85mm combo.

[@DSLRguide]

Your test footage looks top class! Strong work, I’d love to try these

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Thank you Simon! It's an honor to see praise from you! :D

[@DSLRguide]

@@AnamorphicOnABudgetI’ve been living in fear that you’re going to fact-check one of my videos ;) in all seriousness thank you for being the best place on the internet for learning about anamorphic shooting

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Hahahaha! I would never! I've seen all videos where you touch the topic of anamorphics and you do it super well! :P Thank you so much! If you ever come across any question on the topic and you can't figure it out, please shoot me an email!

[@DannyDHidalgo]

Back focus ring is an amazing innovation that I hope other anamorphic manufacturers adopt. Pin cushion is not ideal. Thanks for reviewing!

[@GearZenChannel]

I bet they got a patent on that tech.

[@DeanHarringtonimages]

The back focus ring is a blessing! Good lenses and reasonably priced.

[@ForestCinema]

These look nice! They feel like they have some similar near-misses to the nanomorphs… most people don’t look for pincushion or whispy flares from their anamorphic optics. They also have an overall very modern rendering, from the contrast to the color and even the way things fringe/go soft. Certainly fantastic lenses, and a great choice for some situations, but a bit unfortunately, I think they won’t land as most DP’s first choice in this price bracket, that’s still going to be the Atlas Mercury as they’re a second gen optic from a highly respected brand. Major kudos to Laowa for finding their own niche versus just cloning and undercutting the Orions, the pincushion alone makes it obvious that’s NOT their MO.

[@KillingTheMost]

you definitely have improved your colors and lighting. great

[@LucasPfaff]

I watched the video on my new OLED, really makes these lenses shine. I love several things on these. I think the lenses look cool - not important, but they do. I love how Laowa (repeatedly) released a Set and didn't bring out one lens after another over the course of years, like one of these model tanks you could build from crafts magazines back in the day; that is worth so much. I like their look; the not-really-ca-but-kinda blue glow around contrast edges somehow gets me, even though it's not necessarily a wanted artifact. Pincushion is meh but well controlled. And the backfocus adjustment? Wow. That is simply amazing. Price is fair for what they are. But the flares... man. The Nanomorphs are disappointing here, but their price still makes them sexy. But this... I don't know. The missing 2ndary and all that just makes it bland :(

[@VIPAH]

Yeh I dunno about the silver flares I'm seeing but it looks very thin like 1mm, compared to what I see on other X2 Ana lenses, the streaks look thicker from the centre light source like 3mm and then gradually thin out to 1mm. 4X5.56inch Tiffen streak filters has variations of thickness, but I'm not buying them at all to replicate generic streaks. The back focus adjustment is a cool idea, without the need to use a shim kit when changing cameras. So much more to say with very little time. I'd hire a set first and do some test shoots myself on the Alexa 4:3 Plus and see how they perform. I mean, an Atlas Orion prime is the cost of two of these, so it's your call.

[@drrrw]

This lens set with the S5 ii would be a dream for indie films.

[@Donbros]

But its still 5k

[@BarivanFilm]

Good job, Tito. Thank you very much.

[@SKLZ0]

Merci ! Encore une excellente analyse !

[@ronineditor9920]

Was it a bad lens... or was the backfocus off? I love that they made it super simple to fix that.

[@Donbros]

I dunno great joy 85mm still looks best bang for buck for making budget cinema setup: it + fake anamorphic (or sperical with narrow aperture) for wide scenes

[@Holtenstein]

These look pretty nice! I picked up the Nanomorph PL/EF set. I'm waiting to get the 65 and 80mm when available. I'm curious how these Proteus lenses will cut with the 1.5x Nanomorphs? Are they matched at all as far as color? They're pretty lovely despite the pin cushioning and simple flares. These Proteus lenses are quite impressive though. May have to sell some stuff my Scopes.

[@luggiiiluggiii7179]

my favs in this budget

[@Dezdirectz]

Been waiting for this!

[@thegospelcallTGC]

Thank you for another great video. God bless.

[@slipoch6635]

backfocus is awesome, I assume you could make more mounts for this and use the back focus to adjust for each one? But for the quality of image I think they need to price them further down to a little above the Sirui FF range. The pincushioning in particular is pretty bad and even coverage is not full frame. Great video as always Tito.

[@AdamLangdon]

I'm gonna pass on these. The flares, while seemingly controlled have a very cheap feel. Heavy bois too! I'm really excited to try the Mercury 1.5x, even though it's 1.5x. Until then, I'll keep waiting for the unicorn of "affordable" anamorphics.

[@Donbros]

Great joy 85mm was closest value for money for me imo. later on i am up for something in 3k range with a bit lower tstop (2.9 for 85 is fine but for 35 its rewally lowish, t2 nicer)

[@Q36BN]

Why do they always have to cheap-out on the number of blades, God dang it?!

[@Grug86]

Was the test footage of the Star Wars set done on the "bad" lenses (before Laowa sent you the replacement)?

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Yes.

[@clisboa]

Salve, Tito. Foi mal chegar te perguntando de novo, em português. Seguinte, ontem pintou uma oportunidade de pegar uma GH6 com o metabones XL 0,64. Estamos fazendo um projeto para curta metragens e webseries…. Você acha que com o lançamento da S5 ii esse setup com a GH6 ainda segue valido? Estou sofrendo com essa dúvida, meu orçamento é curto e preciso ter esse equipamento por 2 anos. Acha que vale a pena esperar e pegar logo a S5Ii que é full frame, mas perde em framerate?

[@nicholassheffo5723]

Is the focus ring stop extra loud so the user does not break anything, lose track of things and/or it can be heard during loud productions? Guess you might want to do a video on that too?

[@stu9000]

It's shame the chromatic aberration and flat flares make these a pass for me. Great tests!

[@caffeinatedcameras]

Is it just me or do the straight lines look ever so slightly tilted?

[@Veptis]

Is your mount ever so slightly misaligned? It looks like the bokeh isn't straight. The distortion for Laowa is a welcome surprise, but it's not yet where I would love it. Also are you on some set of a Star Wars show? This looks too advanced for some indie project.

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Believe it or not, it's indie! Hahahaha. I believe everything was aligned, but since I'm using an L to PL adapter, there's a chance of it going slightly skewed.

[@Veptis]

@@AnamorphicOnABudget maybe my eyes are deceiving me but in the talking head shot and the distortion chart it seems ever so slightly skewed. For the distortion chart it might be rolling shutter

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

My kitchen is slightly tilted, so the vertical lines in the background always look skewed if I level the camera in the kitchen (where I put it to film). But if I level it to the background, then I look odd. It's a lose-lose situation. hahaha.

[@exooptik]

Is their PL mount skewed or the camera's? The rack focus at 7:21 reveals so so much weird stuff happening. If this is how they perform, this is not even on par with leica R and some kowa combo.

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

It's my kitchen (where the camera sits). If I level the camera, the background looks tilted, but if I level for the background, then my talking head looks off. :(

[@Endimione17]

this is finally what I was looking for! A great deal... obviously in some sense it's not a cheap deal but I guess in other sense a bit more 'democratic'

[@phoenixfunny4517]

What focusing method is used by Proteus? You never mentioned

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

It's because I don't know for sure! Laowa comes up with really innovative things sometimes. I'd bet on variable diopter though, based on size alone.

[@phoenixfunny4517]

@@AnamorphicOnABudget they claim it's Front Anamorphic design on their site but looking at the front of the lenses it doesn't look like it. In the cook book module when discussing Focusing Methods you spoke about Synchro, Variable Diopter, a 3rd kind, and Panavision (Xelmus also has Panavisions Focusing method). Could that 3rd Focusing method be what Laowa is using?

[@ishfaq2634]

Have you been able to test them with the Laowa 1.4x fullframe expander?

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

I was not able to do so! :(

[@MrMilanina]

The lens used for the interview, is is misaligned? Everything is leaning a bit towards the right side.

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Read the pinned comment. My entire house is skewed. So if I level the camera for the talking head, the background leans to the side. If I do it for the bg, then I look like I'm falling.

[@MrMilanina]

@@AnamorphicOnABudget Hahaha, crazy. Stay safe!

[@Studio23creation]

is your camera not straight for your head interview? or maybe the anamorphic lenses are not aligned ?

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

It's my kitchen (where the camera sits). If I level the camera, the background looks tilted, but if I level for the background, then my talking head looks off. :(

[@Studio23creation]

@@AnamorphicOnABudget ahah okay I get it! Your house is bent xD

[@VFXforfilm]

What’s the Star Wars film?

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

It's Bucketheads - www.youtube.com/@TransmutePictures

[@jayforcinema]

Hi Tito! Would you say these lenses are much better than Great Joy or Sirui for regular usage? Or is it better to own a set of those, and rent these Laowas (or the Atlas) when a project requires the 2x anamorphic look etc? (Lumix S user here)

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Good question! Considering how Sirui and Great Joy's sets are very inconsistent with different squeeze factors, different mechanics, different flares and coatings, etc. I'd say these are superior in that aspect, and the 2x squeeze is pretty neat. They are also pretty pricier than Sirui and Great Joy. About renting Atlas or Proteus, I think Proteus is aimed at owner/operator folks, while Atlas might remain as the go-to for rental houses. Hard to predict!

[@MarkAfterDark]

👍👍👍

[@NeilAngeloBriones]

do the atlas mercury series next

[@AnamorphicOnABudget]

Working on it! Not sure if I can do it next, but trying to get them in for February!

[@Donbros]

5k sadge XD my europe programmers money is not enough for this

[@NPC_averagemale003]

I think they are too late to the game. Atlas already has the 25mm and 21mm.

[@Dezdirectz]

Nah never late

[@phoenixfunny4517]

They're coming out with a 20mm themselves