Tokina Cinema Vista-C Cinema Prime Lenses Introduced – Vintage Optics, All New Coatings

Lens News

by Alexandra ThompsonFebruary 11^th, 2025

Tokina Cinema has announced the Vista-C lens series, designed to provide a classic cinematic look with modern optical performance. These lenses feature red and blue flares, lower contrast, and soft edge fall-off reminiscent of vintage optics. Let’s take a closer look!

Tokina introduced the Cinema Vista 100mm T2.9 lens last fall and expanded the Cinema Vista-P series last month by adding the 21mm and 29mm T1.5 lenses. Now, they are offering the Vista-C series, lenses designed for filmmakers looking for a vintage look with distinctive optical characteristics, many of which you can see in their video below.

Red and blue flares

The Vista-C lenses create red and blue flares instead of the green ones common in modern cinema lenses. The optical design includes slight field distortion and softened edges. Despite these characteristics, the lenses maintain a fast T1.5 aperture, high resolution, and a sturdy build for digital cinema cameras. There is virtually no focus breathing, according to Tokina.

Optical design and performance

Tokina says their design goal for the Vista-C was to blend characteristics of classic lenses like the Cooke Speed Panchro and Canon K35 while eliminating focus breathing and ensuring large format coverage. While the outer design is similar to previous Vista and Vista-P lenses, the Vista-C lenses have been completely rebooted and modified, with all-new coatings specifically developed for this lens to create a unique image with controlled distortion, smooth bokeh, and natural fall-off. Tokina stresses that the results are considerably different from those of the other Vista lenses and other popular cinema lenses on the market. Plus, unlike third-party modifications that alter existing lenses, the Vista-C series is purpose-built to deliver these features.

Coverage and technical specs

An important feature of the Tokina Vista-C lenses is their coverage of Large Format sensors, such as the ALEXA 265. With an image circle exceeding 46.7mm, these lenses comfortably cover Full Frame formats. Focal lengths from 35mm and up can be used on even larger formats, such as the ALEXA 65 in Open Gate, while the 18mm and 25mm lenses do not provide full coverage for these larger formats. These lenses also cover 65mm digital large format for cameras like the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K, which should make them well-suited for artistic applications where a super-clean image isn’t the goal.

Vista-C compared with Vista and Vista-P lenses

• Flare and Color Changes: Vista-C lenses significantly reduce the green flares found in Vista and Vista-P lenses, instead producing red and blue flares.
• Optical Design: The lenses are built with entirely new optical elements. This should produce “an image with less uniformity and lowered contrast while maintaining the fast aperture and resolution that have made the Vista series popular.”
• Spherical Aberration: Unlike the Vista-P lenses, which add spherical aberration by adjusting element spacing, the Vista-C lenses take a different approach to achieve a “classic” image.

Build and mount options for the Tokina Vista-C

The Vista-C lenses keep the same 114mm front diameter and nine-blade iris as the Vista series. They are available in PL, with adapters for Sony E, Canon EF, and MFT mounts. The series launches with nine lenses: 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm, 105mm, and 135mm – all featuring a T1.5 aperture.

Price and availability

Tokina Vista-C lenses are priced from $10,499 to $12,499, and delivery will start in March 2025. You can take a closer look at these lenses at the BSC Expo in London from February 13-15, 2025. For more information, please visit the Tokina website.

Which classic cinema lenses do you think have the most distinctive look, and how do you see the Vista-C series comparing to them? How important is lens character—such as flares, contrast, and edge fall-off—in your filmmaking style, and would you choose a lens like this for your next project? Share your thoughts in the comments below!