Tokina’s Vista-C Cine Primes Combine Vintage Optics and Modern Design

Feb 10, 2025

Kate Garibaldi

A series of black professional camera lenses with various focal lengths are aligned in a row on a white background. Each lens has detailed markings and numbers indicating the specifications.

Tokina announced nine new cinema prime lenses, ranging from wide-angle to medium telephoto focal lengths. With redesigned optics and new coatings, this line promises a modern take on vintage cinematography aesthetics.

Tokina Cinema is known for its previous Vista and Vista-P series lenses which PetaPixel has written about before. The difference between these prior lines and the new Vista-C lenses is a complete overhaul of the internals to match a vintage aesthetic with modern technology.

Tokina worked with leading cinematographers and rental houses to meet the needs of professionals. This new line is meant to exhibit sought-after qualities and characteristics of soft edges, creamy bokeh, and a natural fall-off for high-quality shallow depth of field.

A Tokina Cinema Vista C 18mm T1.5 lens, featuring a smooth black finish with orange and white markings. It has a robust build with focus and aperture rings. The lens is standing upright on a white background.

With a 46.7-millimeter image circle, the Vista-C series covers a wide range of image sensors from the largest RED and Blackmagic Design rigs to Canon and Sony mirrorless. The full lineup of prime lenses covers focal lengths from wide-angle to medium telephoto, including 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm, 105mm, and 135mm.

The newly announced Tokina Vista-C Prime T1.5 lenses are engineered for the perfect blend of a nostalgic vintage look with modern performance. The restructured primes feature a fast T1.5 aperture, promise minimal focus breathing, and include new coatings to flare red or blue flare.

Other optical improvements to the series are increased spherical distortion, reduced contrast, high resolution with low distortion, and low chromatic aberration. In the case of the Vista-C cine primes, some optical flaws are actually desired features.

A woman with long dark hair stands in a dimly lit room, looking directly at the camera. Her expression is serious, and she has smudged makeup around her eyes. The background is blurred with warm lighting.

Person with long hair stands with arms outstretched toward the sky, backlit by the sun. A lens flare creates circular patterns in the blue sky, conveying a sense of freedom and serenity.

“While the exterior construction of the Vista-C lenses is largely unchanged from the previous Vista and Vista-P series, the optical design is a major departure. It has taken years of work to formulate the Vista-C lenses, with elements changed or altered in each lens, and all-new coatings specifically developed,” Tokina explains. “The change in optical design and flare coloring results in a pleasing look that is both retro and fresh at the same time. The results are vastly different to the other Vista lenses as well as other popular cinema lenses on the market.”

A black camera lens with orange and white markings. It displays the brand name, model "Vista C," and "135mm," along with aperture settings. The lens has a metallic base for attachment to a camera body.

All lenses feature an all-metal cine-style housing with unified focus ring positions. Additionally, all the lenses in the new Vista-C line share the same 114mm front diameter and nine-bladed aperture diaphragm.

Person with long hair and sleeveless denim jacket leans back, gazing towards the bright sky. Sunlight and lens flare create a dramatic, dreamy effect, with clouds diffusing the light in a soft, blurred background.

Close-up of a rock on dry grass in a desert landscape, with blurred background of a solitary figure in the distance under a blue sky. The scene conveys an arid and isolated environment.

“This is an incredible set, with amazing characteristics and a lot of personality. The flares are very rich, and the mix of blue and red creates a beautiful aesthetic in the frame. The focus fall-off and minimal focus breathing add another layer of personality and versatility, making this set an easy choice for achieving magnificent results in visual storytelling,” says Horacio Martinez, SVC, Director of Photography, who created the short film below, “MEDIRAGE,” using the Vista-C primes.