Atlas Lens Co

Atlas Lens Co. was founded in Burbank, California in 2017 by Dan Kanes and Forrest Schultz as an anamorphic-only lens manufacturer. The company's Orion Series Anamorphic primes (32, 40, 50, 65, 80, 100mm) launched the brand and were quickly adopted on independent and mid-budget cinema work where Panavision rental wasn't cost-feasible.

The Orion sets were followed by the Mercury full-frame anamorphics, designed to cover the ALEXA Mini LF and Sony VENICE sensor at full image circle, and the Aurora full-frame zoom range. Atlas remains rental-only in some markets but sells direct to owner-operators in the US and EU — a hybrid distribution that's rare in cinema lenses.

The company's price point (Orion sets sit roughly halfway between Cooke Anamorphic /i and Hawk V-Lite) opened anamorphic shooting to a substantially wider population of indie features and high-end episodic productions.