“When projected, the Proteus lens produces incredibly sharp images with superb contrast. The captured images have vivid colors with a painterly bokeh.

In addition, the focus transition is velvety and natural. Finally, the flare characteristics are nuanced but not muted. As a result, it has considerably more character than other optics of a similar price range.

Overall, the Proteus will impress you!”

“Laowa have made a serious entry to the anamorphic world with these lenses.

Being able to shoot wide open at T2 with the Proteus is a great test of its sharpness and performance at 7K 6:5 2X on the RED V-RAPTOR.”

“The proteus has beautiful vintage character wide open while maintaining sharpness. Let a little light in and the most incredible horizontal and vertical flares take shape. I especially like the amber coating.“

“I think this is a really nice anamorphic line-up.

I was very impressed with the close focus distance, which made it easier to get detailed close-ups of nature and people.

They are built like tanks, having robust bodies with smooth focus and aperture rings.

And they are really good wide open at T2.0 with nice oval bokeh.”

“Having only 45mm at my disposal, I’ve managed to shoot a whole music promo with it. The close focus distance 1.8 ft allowed me to get right into the action without worrying about diopters.

The silver coating meant that I had full customization of the flare, meaning I just had to adjust the colour or gel of the light and it would create the preferred colour of the flare. It had nice characteristics, but they were subtle and not over the top. And last but not least,

I truly enjoyed working with a clean, almost-zero vignette lens; it allowed me to shoot in open gate mode without compromising on anything.”