u/Samskihero

Here's a little lens test we've been doing if you're a big fan or interested in budget anamorphics from Blazar.

Overall the character of both of these lenses are very unique. I definitely think the Mantis is a step above the Remus. The flare is a lot more anamorphically organic, not relying on artificial streaks to look anamorphic. And it's roughly 1.8x looking iris, keeps that raindrop looking bokeh much stronger throughout the frame and when stopping down. But the Remus has a very nice piece of characteristic where the bokeh becomes very over corrected to the edges, resulting in much more texture. And because of the cutting gives it sometimes on the edges a bit more of a 1.8 times look. But center bokeh clearly looks very much 1.5 times.

We have much deeper dives happening over at CineTraits In the next week or two, where you can compare across hundreds of different cine optics with the same visual tests. We'll be really going into things with even more detail

We've had some good fun finally comparing the Remus and Mantis from Blazar back to back, truly trying to understand the differences between these optics.

We have a lot deeper dives that are available to be seen on CineTraits in the next week or two, But both have definitely unique characteristics that make them stand out.

I personally prefer the mantis overall a lot more, but I definitely can't get enough of That Remus look with With the bokeh on the edges getting so overcorrected, I do love that look. While the mantis remains pretty smooth with just a bit of green fringing around the bokeh, I also really wasn't a fan of that silver flair because the streak look is not my favourite anamorphic character but it's really grown on me. But the Remus definitely is a streak machine, So if you're not a fan of streaks, the mantis will give you much more anamorphic optically looking flares, not relying on artificial looking streaks to achieve the anamorphic flare.