Just prior to NAB 2025 in Las Vegas, NiSi has announced its new AUREUS PRIME T1.4 Cinema Lens Series. This new series covers a 46mm image circle, and NiSi states that they would be a good option for anything from cinema and TV productions to documentaries and commercial work
The AUREUS series will initially consist of five focal lengths:
- 18mm T1.4
- 24mm T1.4
- 35mm T1.4
- 50mm T1.4
- 85mm T1.4
NiSi will be releasing 29mm, 65mm, and 105mm focal lengths in the future.
The AUREUS PRIME series was designed to complement the NiSi’s ATHENA PRIME lenses, and they share a similar optical character and tonal rendering. NiSi states that the lenses should intercut together without any issues.
All the lenses in the AUREUS PRIME series have the exact same weight, 1300g / 2.86 lbs, and they are the same length.
| WEIGHT | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 24mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g |
| DZOFilm Arles 25mm T1.4 | 3.3 lb / 1490g |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 35mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g |
| DZOFilm Arles 35mm T1.4 | 3.6 lb / 1650g |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 50mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g |
| DZOFilm Arles 50mm T1.4 | 3.7 lb / 1688g |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 85mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g |
| DZOFilm Arles 75mm T1.4 | 3.7 lb / 1662g |
Above you can see how the weight of the lenses compares to the DZOFilm Arles prime series.
| WEIGHT | ||
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 24mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| NiSi Athena 25mm T1.9 | 1.76 lb / 800 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 35mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| NiSi Athena 35mm T1.9 | 1.76 lb / 800 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 50mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| NiSi Athena 50mm T1.9 | 1.76 lb / 800 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 85mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| NiSi Athena 85mm T1.9 | 1.76 lb / 800 g |
Above you can see how the weight compares to the NiSi Athena Primes.
Below you can see how that weight compares to the Rokinon XEEN CF Pro Cine Lenses.
| WEIGHT | ||
| Rokinon XEEN CF 24mm T1.5 | 2.00 lb / 910g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 24mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| Rokinon XEEN CF 35mm T1.5 | 2.40 lb / 1090 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 35mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| Rokinon XEEN CF 50mm T1.5 | 2.00 lb / 910 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 50mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g | |
| Rokinon XEEN CF 85mm T1.5 | 2.22 lb / 1000 g | |
| NiSi AUREUS PRIME 85mm T1.5 | 2.86 lb / 1300g |
The lenses feature an 11-blade iris, and NiSi claims that the sharpness and contrast remain consistent from T1.4 to T22. The optical design includes ultra-low dispersion elements to help minimize chromatic aberration, distortion, and color fringing. Advanced coatings are claimed to reduce flare and ghosting, preserving contrast and neutral color rendering. The lenses also claim to have minimal focus breathing.
They have a 300° focus throw, 90mm front diameter, and an 86mm filter thread. There are also glow-in-the-dark markings, and the lenses ship with interchangeable focus scales (feet or meters). Each scale is user-changeable using a tool (these are sold separately).
The close focus ability is as follows:
- 18mm T1.4- 25cm / 10″
- 24mm T1.4- 33cm / 1.1′
- 35mm T1.4 – 35cm / 1.2′
- 50mm T1.4- 55cm/ 1′ 10″
- 85mm T1.4- 90cm / 3′
The series is available in PL mount, with flange distances from 16.1mm to 19.8mm, ensuring compatibility with most PL-mount cameras and adapters.
The problem with the NiSi ATHENA lenses you couldn’t use them (except the 25mm) with PL mount adapters that utilize drop-in filters, as the rear mounts extended out too far. It is good to see that you will no longer have this issue with the AUREUS.
Rear Filter Holder
A built-in rear filter holder supports ND, diffusion, and creative filters.
Specifications
Price & Availability
The NiSi Aureus Prime T1.4 Cinema Lenses will retail for $2,299 USD each, except the 18mm, which will be slightly more expensive at $2,599 USD.
You can also buy the 5 lens set in a custom hard case for $9,999 USD.
As a comparison, the NiSi ATHENA Primes retail between $1,269 USD and $1,349 USD depending on the focal length. So that makes the NiSi Aureus Prime almost twice the price of the ATHENA primes.
| PRICE | |
| NiSi Aureus Prime T1.4 Cinema Lens Kit – 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm + Hard Case (PL Mount) | $9,999 USD |
| NiSi 18mm Aureus Prime Full Frame T1.4 Cinema Lens (PL Mount) | $2,599 USD |
| NiSi 24mm Aureus Prime Full Frame T1.4 Cinema Lens (PL Mount) | $2,299 USD |
| NiSi 35mm Aureus Prime Full Frame T1.4 Cinema Lens (PL Mount) | $2,299 USD |
| NiSi 50mm Aureus Prime Full Frame T1.4 Cinema Lens (PL Mount) | $2,299 USD |
| NiSi 85mm Aureus Prime Full Frame T1.4 Cinema Lens (PL Mount) | $2,299 USD |
At least in my opinion, the direct competition for the NiSi Aureus Prime T1.4 Cinema Lenses comes in the form of the DZOfilm Arles primes, which retail between $2,199 USD and $2,749 USD depending on the focal length.
Other lenses that could be considered competition would be the Rokinon XEEN CF Pro Cine Lenses, which retail for $1,599 USD.
Thoughts
In the last few years, the market has been flooded with affordable cine lenses, and this has been a good thing for the end user because the intense competition has seen prices continue to fall. The downside to this is that deciding what lenses are right for you has become harder and harder given all the options that are available. Resale value can also be bad with cheaper optics, but for a lot of owner/operators, the initial outlay isn’t too bad.
There are no shortcuts with optics, and you generally pay for what you get. While the NiSi ATHENA primes were hardly groundbreaking in terms of coming up with an affordable full-frame cine prime lens set, the consistency in terms of build quality, mechanics, and all the lenses having the same weight is something we hadn’t arguably seen before. If you have a stigma about affordable Chinese-made cine lenses not being any good, you should think again.
The Athena primes represented excellent value for money, and optically, while certainly far from perfect, they can compete with much more expensive lenses in certain areas. The 35mm had pretty bad CA when used wide open, and as I mentioned previously, there was the issue with the rear protruding mounts that made almost all of the focal lengths impossible to use with PL adapters that had rear drop-in filters.
The new NiSi Aureus Prime T1.4 Cinema Lenses look to build on the Athena series with faster T-stops and enhanced build quality. NiSi certainly looks like they have addressed some of the issues that the Athena series had, and the Aureus primes appear to be a solid option. They do, however, face stiff competition from other lens series that are already on the market.
