Tokina Cinema Vista-P series lenses - the perfect combination of vintage character and modern resolution

Imagine a cinema lens with a buttery, swirly, vintage-like character towards the edge of the frame, combined with incredibly high resolution in the middle. A lens that has virtually no breathing and a super fast T1.5 T-stop that guarantees excellent separation between subject and background when required. A lens that has a heritage, built by some of Japan’s finest optical designers, and based on an existing design that is already used on major shows like Loki and Ted Lasso.

Now a complete range of those lenses is a reality with the new Tokina Cinema Vista-P series. Designed in collaboration with DPs and rental houses, the Tokina Vista-P series lenses are a modification of the original Vista primes that have a unique combination of attributes that set them apart in a new and distinctive way.

From the outside, the Vista-P primes look physically similar to the existing Vista lenses, but the images they create have a character all their own. At the edge of frame, the look is similar to famous vintage lenses like the Helios-44 or Petzval with their swirl-type distortion, while overall the look is cleaner and more modern, with resolution that exceeds traditional vintage lenses.

With the Vista-P lenses, Tokina Cinema has modified the original Vista primes by moving the placement of the lens elements to deliberately introduce strong spherical distortion - a characteristic more commonly associated with vintage lenses. This is not a simple feat.

Because increasing spherical distortion is seen as being beneficial to many DPs and productions, technicians at major camera rental companies often attempt to de-tune their original Vista lenses by increasing the spacing of the rear element group. Adding shims can move these elements further apart and does have a mild effect. In order to get the greatest noticeable effect, more spacing is needed between other elements deep inside the lens, which is not possible with this kind of relatively simple modification.

With the Vista-P series Tokina Cinema has significantly re-engineered the inside of the Vista Prime to increase air-to-glass distance on hard to reach elements, creating a much stronger distortion effect. The images created by Vista-P are also lower contrast due to the increased distance in air-to-glass surfaces which further emulates the look of vintage lenses. The combination of increased distortion of the edges of the frame, plus this lower contrast, make Vista-P an ideal modern alternative to less reliable and lower resolution vintage lenses.

Cinematographer David Rom, who shot hit TV show Ted Lasso using the original Tokina Cinema Vista primes, has had a chance to try the Vista-P series on his latest show ‘The Devil’s Hour’. He said, “I already love the Tokina Vista prime look in large format and the new Vista-P series dials up the character another notch. Having played with the Vista-P on the second season of The Devil’s Hour I can see these new lenses being a very popular choice. I love the way the falloff has a vintage feel that concentrates attention on the subject”

With the Tokina Cinema Vista-P series, the spherical distortion effect is most noticeable at the Vista Vision/Full Frame intended area of definition. The effect can be lessened at the edge of the frame if Super35 or smaller formats are used.

Because of the complexity of the modification it has to be performed at the Tokina Cinema factory in Japan. The Vista-P series will be available as brand new lenses already fully modified when purchased, or as an upgrade to the existing Vista prime lenses which requires the lenses to be returned to Tokina Cinema and sent to Japan for modification. Once done, the conversion is not reversible as to do so would be uneconomical.

Apart from the difference in character, the Tokina Cinema Vista-P lenses retain all the other key advantages of the regular Vista Primes. They exhibit virtually no focus breathing and have image circles with a 46.7mm area of definition that can cover all large format cinema cameras. The lenses share the same 114mm front O.D. and nine blade iris, and come in PL, LPL, Sony E, EF or MFT mount.

Initially the Tokina Cinema Vista-P lenses will initially be available in 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm focal lengths, all at a constant T1.5. It is anticipated that additional focal lengths will eventually be added.

The 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm will cost $7499 USD each. The 18mm will cost $8999 USD.

For more info visit the Vista-P product page on the Tokina Cinema website.

Additional images can be downloaded here.