NiSi ATHENA PRIME Rewind 25mm T1.9 Full Frame Cinema Lens (PL Mount)

The NiSi ATHENA PRIME Rewind 25mm T1.9

The NiSi ATHENA PRIME Rewind 25mm T1.9 is a full-frame cinema prime lens designed for filmmakers and cinematographers who want the ability to shift between vintage-inspired character and modern optical precision within a single lens. The 25mm offers a natural wide-angle perspective that excels in dynamic storytelling, from intimate environmental portraits to expansive interior and exterior scenes.

Two Cinematic Looks from One Lens

The defining feature of the ATHENA PRIME Rewind 25mm is its ability to deliver two distinct optical personalities. Wide open at T1.9, the lens produces a warm, vintage character with amplified aberrations, softened resolution, and enhanced foreground and background blur complete with halo effects on highlights. As the aperture is stopped down, these characteristics progressively diminish. By T2.8, cinematographers reach a balanced sweet spot between stylisation and sharpness, and by T5.6 to T8, the lens behaves close to a modern, clinically clean cinema lens. This gives directors of photography an intuitive creative dial for every shot.

A Natural Wide-Angle Storytelling Lens

At 25mm, the Rewind provides a wide-angle perspective that maintains natural spatial relationships, making it an ideal choice for walk-and-talk sequences, interior scenes, and environmental portraiture where context and atmosphere are essential. The full-frame coverage with a 46mm imaging circle ensures compatibility with all modern large-format cinema cameras. Combined with the Rewind’s retained barrel distortion, wide shots take on a subtle organic curvature that enhances visual depth without appearing artificially distorted.

Signature Bokeh and Warm Flare Character

At wide apertures, the Rewind 25mm produces distinctive bokeh rendering with enhanced foreground and background blur and halo effects on highlights. Flare intensity is significantly increased over the standard Athena Prime, delivering warm-toned flares that add atmosphere to backlit scenes, practicals, and direct light sources. Despite its vintage character, the Rewind 25mm maintains color rendering highly consistent with the standard ATHENA PRIME set, allowing cinematographers to freely intercut between Rewind and standard Athena lenses without extensive color correction.

Professional Build and Workflow

The 25mm features matched weight and physical dimensions with all other Rewind focal lengths, enabling seamless lens changes without gimbal rebalancing or matte box adjustments. The 300-degree focus ring with fluorescent focal scales ensures precise focus pulls in low-light conditions, while the rear filter mount allows for quick gel and creative filter changes. Minimal focus breathing maintains a stable field of view during focus adjustments, and chromatic aberration levels remain unchanged from the standard Athena Prime.

A Versatile Creative Tool

Whether shooting dialogue-driven drama, dynamic documentary sequences, or atmospheric commercial content, the NiSi ATHENA PRIME Rewind 25mm T1.9 provides filmmakers with an unprecedented level of creative flexibility. The ability to transition from vintage warmth to modern clarity within a single lens eliminates the need to carry multiple optics for different visual treatments, reducing cost and complexity while expanding the creative language available to every project.