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Cooke Panchro Re-housing.???

T

Thomas Johnson

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I'm thinking of buying some ancient cooke panchro lenses and getting them re-housed. Does anyone know how the compare to the modern cooke panchro lenses, what the differences are? any short falls or things to look out for?
 
They do look a little different, and the mechanics of focus mechanism are likely to be different than S4, S4mini and S5..
Also, the image diameter will not be changed from the original configuration. That is, the lenses will still have the same image area coverage.
If you can rent a set of the series 2000 rehoused ones or JDC rehoused ones, or test them at a rental house, I think you will get a fair idea what it will do for you.

Finding clean enough sets to rehouse, and paying for rehousing, will cost you very similar to buying new s4 minis.... Looks like about $20k and up to rehouse a set of 6..
However, if you have a clean set of series 2 and 3 speed panchros on hand, it may well be worth your while.

I have been considering doing this.. but am more likely to go with visual products renewal (service, PL mount, front ring) modification at $1350/lens.
 
I just looked into the price of S4 minis and they are around $40000 a set. Is that right? or do you know something I don't?
 
True Lens Service do a rehousing service as do P+S Technik and Van Diemen, prices vary considerably.
 
@Thomas..
Yes.. $40K ish for S4 Minis..
about $23k-$30K to service and rehouse originals.. a set with good glass and coatings will likely cost you $10k-$15K in arri, bnc, or other legacy mount.
we're talking sets of 7 lenses here..
 
Bear in mind the wider Speed Panchros (S2/S3) won't cover 5K and probably won't cover the Super 35 frame either (and if they cover, the drop of sharpness and vignetting should be noticiable).

Their performance at the wider apertures won't be stellar either, but that's what makes them lovely for the right project.
 
Thanks a lot for all the info everyone.. do you know at what point the wider lenses no longer cover a 35mm frame?
thanks again,
Tom
 
Thomas when you say 35mm what do you mean? Are you referring to Red S35 mm sensor.? Or FF35 ? I have used my panchros plenty on my Red one MX sensor, the 18mm shows some very very slight vignette and fall off, consider that when the dragon sensor comes 4K will be nearer the old 3K so I wouldn't worry to much. Here is a link to a very small rough test of my 18mm on a red one mx @ 4K.
http://vimeo.com/3307149 this was a panavision rehoused set I used to have. Hope this helps.
 
Hi Thomas, all of the old Panchros should cover an image circle around 30mm, which was the format (4-perf 35mm) they were designed for.

However, except for the wider angle lenses (18mm and 25mm both S2 or S3 series), it's very likely that these lenses will cover 4-perf Super 35mm (31.5mm circle) and even 5K (33.54mm circle).

I would test every single lens anyway; these lenses were handmade and non-computer designed and there may be significant changes from set to set, including lens coverage.
 
I saw True Lens at NAB and they had a very impressive looking set of rehoused Panchros at their booth. They cost about $3,000 a lens, but you end up with a beautiful lens set with modern mechanics. I was very impressed and very sad that I sold my set of Panchros :(
 
Adorama has a pretty good looking 50mm Panchro they are selling for $3k, already re-housed.

I talked to them yesterday, and they think the housing uses a Zeiss shell (maybe from a Super Speed? About that size).
 
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