Tokina has announced the Cinema Vista 135mm T1.5. To my knowledge, the only other 135mm T1.5 lens in the world is the ZEISS Supreme Prime 135mm T1.5 which costs a whopping $21,750 USD.
Making a lens that is 135mm, with a T1.5 aperture, has minimal focus breathing, and covers an image circle of φ46.7mm is quite an engineering feat.
This is the 7th lens in the Cinema Vista series and it joins the 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 105mm. Tokina is the only manufacturer offering a complete set of larger than full-frame coverage cinema lenses that are all T1.5.
The 135mm T1.5 comes as a bit of a shock as Tokina told us when they introduced the 105mm T1.5 that it was too hard to make a 135mm with a T1.5 aperture.
Key features
- Fast T1.5 T Stop
- Nearly no breathing
- Use of aspherical elements and modern coatings
- Exceptionally low chromatic aberrations
- Newly designed large-format cinema glass
- Image circle of 46.7mm
- 114mm front outer diameter
- 9 bladed iris
- Shimmable mount
The optical design consists of 14 groups and 16 elements. That’s a lot of glass! The minimum focus distance is 1.4m (4’7′).
The 135mm T1.5 is a heavy lens, weighing in at 2.99kg (6.59lb). That makes it the heaviest lens in the Cinema Vista series.
Just like all the other Cinema Vista lenses the 135mm shares the same form factor, lens gear position, focus rotation (300°), and front barrel diameter (114mm) as the other Tokina Cinema Vista prime lenses. The 135mm also has threading on the front of the lens to accommodate 112mm screw-on filters.
The biggest selling points for the Tokina Cinema Vista series are that they are all T1.5, have virtually no breathing (apart from the 18mm), feature a 300-degree focus rotation, and cover an image circle of up to 46.7mm. While some of the newer cinema primes from companies are rehoused from stills glass, Tokina has purpose-built these just for cinema, with all new elements inside. They are also color matched for consistency across the range.
The lens will be available in PL, Canon EF, M4/3, Sony E Mount, as well as ARRI LPL. The mount is changeable, but unfortunately, this is not something you can do yourself.
Price & Availability
The 135mm T1.5 will begin shipping in January of 2020 and will also be available to current Vista One owners in the Vista One version. As with all Vista One, it will not be available individually in the single coated Vista One version. It will be available as a single lens to all in the standard Vista version.
There is no current indication of pricing.
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