At Interbee 2022 in Japan, LAOWAS was showing its yet-to-be-announced PROTEUS 45mm T2 2x anamorphic lens.
Laowa is looking to launch the Proteus in around 1-2 months and there will be four focal lengths in the first phase (35/45/60/85). The lenses will also be available in three lens flare colors like the nanomorphs (Blue / Amber / Silver). The pricing is not ready yet.
The PROTEUS lens series was designed for S35 sensors. It is interesting to finally see some more competition in the 2x space given so many anamorphic lenses being announced these days are either 1.5x or 1.8x.
I got to quickly try out the PROTEUS 45mm T2 on the show floor and I liked the look, but it was far from perfect. The 45mm also seemed to have very good close-focus ability. I did notice some chromatic aberration but it didn’t appear to be too bad. The mechanics and build quality were both good. The images did look slightly skewed and I think that could possibly be because the front element wasn’t completely straight. Again, this was a prototype of the lens and i imagine any issues would be ironed out before they actually start shipping.
I would imagine that LAOWA will be pricing them very competitively as they generally try to target the more affordable end of the market.
