NiSi ATHENA Prime 18mm T2.2, 40mm T1.9, and 135mm T2.2 Unveiled – and a Look Ahead

by Omri Keren LapidotApril 24^th, 2024

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NiSi ATHENA Prime lenses impressed us back at NAB 2023, and now the company has come up with three new lenses: 18mm T2.2, 40mm T1.9, and 135mm T2.2. In this short NAB 2024 show floor interview, you can hear about NiSi’s motivation behind the ATHENA Prime line, as well as some possible future products and the company’s relationship with the filmmaker community.

NiSi is among the newest players in the cine glass game, joining the fray with the ATHENA Prime series about a year ago. The company set their aim at technically perfect, highly corrected optics, with minimal distortion, aberration, etc. We’ve had the chance to review the first five lenses, and those represent a great balance between optical performance and price. The recent addition is, according to NiSi’s representative, a result of community feedback NiSi got, as well as technical and commercial factors.

The new lens trio – 18mm T2.2, 40mm T1.9, and 135mm T2.2

NiSi ATHENA introduced three new lenses to their line. The 18mm T2.2 offers a wide angle, but not as wide as the extreme 14mm. It’s also slightly faster at T2.2 and has a 77mm front filter thread. The ATHENA 40mm T1.9 slates itself between two classics – the 35mm and 50mm. While not as popular as either the 35mm or 50mm, the 40mm provides a certain look appreciated by many, being closer to the perfect normal point of these sensor sizes.

On the other end, we have the ATHENA 135mm T2.2. According to NiSi, this was the most requested focal length, classically combining a fast aperture with a longer focal length for hair-thin depth of field. With the 135mm T/2.2, NiSi had to break the mold in terms of length and weight. The lens still maintains identical control ring placement and front filter diameter. It’s still light enough to be used on a gimbal or hand-held.

Mounts and accessories

NiSi offers their ATHENA Prime lenses with various mounting options. The most popular is PL, also easily adapted to mirrorless mounts. There’s also EF in the long flange department. When it comes to mirrorless mounts, the company offers E, L, Z, and RF mounts. These include a drop-in filter option with various options.

In a rather unique move, the company also produces GF mount lenses for FUJIFILM GFX cameras. While the advertised image circle of 46mm will not fully cover the 44x33mm sensor, it should be enough for the 16×9 crop or various other crops currently available on the GFX 100 II.

Future lenses

NiSi hasn’t released official announcements regarding future products, but the company’s representative did share some insight regarding future progress vectors NiSi is looking into. These include the future addition of ATHENA Prime lenses, with a macro lens being the most requested. Additionally, the company is looking into some “tuned lenses”. We can’t yet confirm if it’s going to be a vintage spin-off line of current ATHENA Primes, or maybe something like the Module 8 tuner. We’ll have to wait and see. So will we see a 100-105 T2.8 macro and a vintage line in NAB 2025? Hope we will.

Price and availability

All three new NiSi ATHENA lenses, the 18mm T2.2, 40mm T1.9, and 135mm T2.2 share a similar price at $1,286 each. If you already own the rest of the system, you can get the new trio along with a rugged 9-lens hard case for $3,499/ and if you’re new here and want the entire 8-lens set, then $8,999 will do that for you, including the 9-lens hard case. Lenses are available for preorder; availability is yet to be determined.

Do you find these focal lengths useful? Will you consider adding them to your existing NiSi ATHENA set? What would be your idea for the next ATHENA Prime lens? Let us know in the comments.