ZEISS will be showing its ten-focal-length Panoptes 65 large-format prime set at Cine Gear Expo LA next week and has released new details on what looks to be some very classy glass.
Back in February, when we covered the ZEISS Aatma launch at BSC Expo, we mentioned the Panoptes 65 large-format prime set in passing and promised more details when we had them. We still don't know the all-important pricing, but ZEISS has now released more details ahead of next week's Cine Gear in LA and what will be the industry's first chance to get hands on with the new glass.
The Panoptes 65 is a set of ten primes running from 25mm to 180mm (25, 35, 40, 45, 55, 70, 90, 110, 135 and 180mm) with a uniform T2.2 across the range. The 59.9 mm image circle covers the current generation of large-format cinema cameras: the ARRI Alexa 265, Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65, and Fujifilm GFX ETERNA 55.
ZEISS says the lenses are clean and controlled: natural colors, forgiving skin textures, gentle focus fall-off, silky bokeh, with distortion and chromatic aberration kept to a minimum. This is emphatically not a character lens set; that is what the Aatma are for. The Panoptes 65s present the precise, premium option.
The company also makes a point of connecting the set to its medium format photography heritage (the Pentacon Six, Hasselblad 500 series, Contax 645 are all name-checked) arguing that decades of controlling aberrations, color, and bokeh at large image circle scales directly informs what the Panoptes 65 delivers.
Eight of the ten focal lengths share a 95 mm front diameter; the 25mm and 180mm step up to 114 mm. Iris and focus ring positions are standardized across the set, and the lenses also feature dual metric and imperial scales. Physical lengths are closely matched too. Most focal lengths measure 144 mm from front to LPL mount flange, with the 40mm and 90mm at 148 mm and the 180mm at 165 mm. Weights for the eight lenses with published data run from 1.62 kg (3.57 lbs) for the 70mm to 2.18 kg (4.81 lbs) for the 135mm.
On the data side, the Panoptes 65 carries ZEISS eXtended Data technology, providing frame-by-frame vignetting and distortion data on top of standard Cooke /i metadata. The lenses integrate fully into the ZEISS CinCraft ecosystem for VFX, camera tracking, and virtual production. On ARRI cameras using ARRI LCS, focus scales and depth of field data transfer automatically to Hi-5 and WCU-4 hand units with no manual calibration required.
The eight focal lengths from 35mm to 135mm are due for delivery in late summer 2026. The 25mm and 180mm follow in 2027. While ZEISS says the lenses are available for order now from dealers either individually or in a set, we haven't found a price yet. Will update when we can.