Zeiss has revealed Aatma: a new range of nine high‑end, full‑frame cine lenses. The line-up consists of 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 85mm, 100mm, and 135mm primes, all with a T1.5 maximum aperture. The Aatma range is positioned above Zeiss’ CP.3 and Nano Prime cine lenses, and is roughly equivalent in price to the company’s Supreme offerings. The design of Aatma lenses is said to have been inspired by some of Zeiss's most iconic 20th century lenses, while incorporating the mechanical reliability, data integration, and workflow compatibility that's expected for current video production.
“With Aatma, we wanted to give cinematographers an expressive and characterful choice within the ZEISS offering,” says Jeanfre Fachon, Senior Product Manager Cinema at ZEISS. “Over the years, we have come to acknowledge how much some of our legacy lens lines are still appreciated. But Instead of simply remaking them, we looked at their most appealing characteristics and drew inspiration to incorporate into a new optical design.”
The name Aatma comes from the Sanskrit word for “innermost essence”, “self”, or “soul”. This is in-keeping with Zeiss' aim for the lenses to produce image quality that evokes emotion, while maintaining consistency across the set. Aatma's visual look has been tuned to be reminiscent of classic Zeiss image quality, producing gently rendered skin texture with softened contrast, smooth and vibrant focus transitions, and lush bokeh featuring a subtle soap bubble highlights in out of focus areas.
Zeiss has also paid particular attention to the mechanical design of Aatma lenses. Each lens has the same barrel positioning for its focussing and aperture rings, along with a standardized 95mm front barrel diameter and a weight of between 1.22 and 1.7kg. The 18mm and 135mm lenses are bulkier, measuring 114mm in diameter and weigh around 2.3kg. This uniformity makes it easy to change lenses when the camera body is fitted in a rig, with no adjustment required to any follow focus gearing. The lenses are equipped as standard with an Arri PL mount. As with all modern Zeiss cine lenses, each Aatma lens features an eXtended Data (XD) output socket enabling frame-by-frame data on lens vignetting and distortion, along with standard metadata. The lenses are also fully integrated with the Zeiss CinCraft ecosystem, supporting efficient VFX, camera tracking, and virtual production workflows.
Aatma lenses are available to pre-order now from B&H, either individually or as a full nine-lens set, with delivery expected to begin in June 2026. You'd better have deep pockets though, as each lens will set you back between $20,950 and $25,500. Pricing of the full set has yet to be announced, but it'll certainly be well into six figures.
