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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

a COOKE Book

Ilya O.

Ilya O.

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Hello everyone. It's vintage Cooke time now.

Dan Kanes wrote me:
"Dear Ilya,
...
Mainly I would love to see the Optical diagram of each Panchro!
In particular I never knew the series 2 wides used aspheres at all!
..."

Dan was asking info one can find in this very cool book by Taylor & Hobson. We simply call it COOKE BOOK here (Rank Taylor Hobson Lens Leaflets).

Friends, I have just scanned and now publishing it:

'Cooke Book' - Lenses for Motion Picture Photography by Taylor Hobson (Rank Precision Industries LTD.) - (with text layer) 600dpi greyscale + COPYRIGHT.pdf

http://goo.gl/DcVxoB

!!! NOTE: This 335 page PDF is a copy of the original Taylor Hobson / Rank Taylor Hobson Lens Leaflets, which are owned by Cooke Optics Limited since 1998 when Cooke became a stand alone company. So it is under the copyright of:
© 1960 by Cooke Optics Limited.

Front page and Contents:



Contents in text for robot indexing:


  1. Modern Cine Camera Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  2. Photographic Resolving Power—by G. H. Cook
  3. Surface Treatment of Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  4. Recent Developments in Anamorphotic Systems—by G. H. Cook
  5. T-Stop Calibration of Photographic Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  6. Electronic Computing Applied to Lens Design—by P. A. Merigold
  7. Cooke Speed Panchro Lenses Series II—by G. H. Cook
  8. Achievement in Optics
  9. Glossary of Optical Terms

  10. 18mm. f/1.7, T/2 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens
  11. 25mm. f/1.8, T/2.2 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  12. Aspheric Optical Systems—by P. A. Merigold [this one is missing from the Index but it is the the Book]
  13. 18mm and 25mm COOKE SPEED PANCHRO LENS SERIES III - f/2.0, T/2.2 [this one is missing from the Index but it is the the Book]
  14. 32mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  15. 40mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  16. 50mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  17. 75mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  18. 100mm. f/2.5, T/2.8 Cooke Deepfield Lens

  19. Accessory Focus Rings for 6-in., 8-in. and 121/2-in. Telepanchro Lenses
  20. 6-inch f/2.8, T/3.2 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  21. 8-inch f/4, T/4.5 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  22. Telepanchro Lenses for 35mm. Motion Picture Photography
  23. 12 [SUP]1/2[/SUP]-inch f/4, T/4.5 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  25. Depth of Field Tables for 35mm. — in feet
  26. Speed Panchro and Telepanchro Lenses — in metres

  27. Kinetal Lenses for 16mm. Professional Motion Picture Photography
  28. Kinetal Lenses—Unmounted Optical Units
  29. 9mm. Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.9, T/2 in 16mm. Arriflex Camera Mount
  30. 12.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  31. 17.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  32. 25mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  33. 37.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  34. 50mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  35. 75mm. „ „ „ f/2.6, T/2.8 „ „ „
  36. 100mm. „ „ „ f/2.6, T/2.8 „ „ „
  37. 150mm. „ „ „ f/3.8, T/4„ „ „


That is not all info on Cooke lenses.
There is magnificient NIKFI catalogue where lens schemes/diagrams, aberration grafs and resolution tests of 35mm and 16mm Cooke are found.
Never published before super geeky pages of true lens porn here! No bullshitting, guys, a GEM:-)
Feel free to share, I myself scanned all these, copyright free.

What is really unique in this NIKFI lens test Catalogue is that lenses from East and West were tested using the same standard procedure.
That is very rare, guys, even nowadays (with the notable exception of Roger Cicala of LensRenstals).
Full NIKFI Catalogue has OKS, RO, Kinoptic Apochromats, Astro-Berlin Tachars, Cooke Panchros, Baltars, Angeniuex primes and zooms, Kowa Cine-Prominars, Zeiss/Opton Super Speeds, Technovision Anamorphics etc...
Later I will publish it in full.

Let's share and power the community:

Cooke BOOK 16&35mm by NIKFI - a part of NIKFI Catalog of 1969 (with text layer).pdf
! new, updated with 16mm Kinetal lenses !

page sample:



NIKFI Catalogue contains these COOKe (Taylor & Hobson) 35&16mm lenses:


  1. Coooke Speed Panchro 18mm f1.7
  2. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.III 18mm f2
  3. Coooke Speed Panchro 25mm f2
  4. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.II 25mm f1.8
  5. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.III 25mm f2
  6. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.II 32mm f2
  7. Coooke Speed Panchro 35mm f2
  8. Coooke Speed Panchro 40mm f2
  9. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.II 40mm f2
  10. Coooke Speed Panchro 50mm f2
  11. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.II 50mm f2
  12. Coooke Speed Panchro 75mm f2
  13. Coooke Speed Panchro Ser.II 75mm f2
  14. Coooke Deep Field Panchro 100mm f2.5

  15. 9mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.9
  16. 12.5mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.8
  17. 25mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.8
  18. 37.5mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.8
  19. 50mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.8
  20. 75mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/2.6
  21. 100mm Cooke Kinetal Lens f/2.6


It is in Russian, but the most clever of us can copy the text layer in this .pdf and then use G-translate:-)

Sometime OCR is weak so you will have bad translation, so use this pic as a key to lens brochures:
5ukzc7
 
Last edited:
I will add here some info on the Cooke series II and III, which is in COOKe Book Dan asked for.

Ser.III were made to decrease bulkyness of inverted telephoto design so that the usage on turret cameras was okay.

18mm and 25mm had 1 ASPHERIC surface (made in 1954!)
PASBlmGpikaoPTDTwx2i7jrKF2e2_zXlldLxqlJeeHeYyXtsVccbTAh0l-BbGTp6RmicXDqRkkJxop0hHBfXLQnTN2-sEueoWKWrbraDG_a0iq53h2fIQZqcXFSNUHCbiRJMkQ0MT0YqTXOKkS8hJOTxo-zUnQ_UHnckj1zIyBlkCOMiGKkeONRwQvAUo3BTHTrUlRUWFU-Oz26AcVfx2sYMNmK8eF4aiTzBvEBRqyWSCMXElYRKZRHRYCVAv-YXWFp6zFl8pd3EHqsoiCIoDuqBE5j9gm8BQG2YZr_2E9bAHRvnJ2Ro3CQDtXeFr1DoT0HrjPtPeGUl99ZwIdZfBtoET5_M5GGak5jLXpeOV6O0Clt0XviLrBgTxR_KT9T0CUY2Ni9vDPS5JszGXjEXv5FTQmJU5-nUqF5cxPdJb_cQYLvTjpX8dHR7fux6EvsM2o8p9DwL4X9tR6Y52to7SX4eKeqK64oDehek1AaVwHTpdCgLAPjj6NIIuyKV0sOQSC5McPFviv6stZ9lTQpWIU2W40gKSkqRJynF4-bSU1LWTLynaoKl6Xt5tn815PdfhMJmXvAVBe6fJ87B82Lvxyn79bjSD-rmoRP-UzAvNTYUB9D7=w1280-h916-no


Well, let's give COOKE speak for themselves:

...The new Speed Panchro Series III lenses represent a major advance in two respects in the design of inverted telephoto lenses. Namely, a considerable reduction in bulk and length of the lens and a high aberrational correction over the whole of the wide angular field achieved by the use of non-spherical surfaces.
The reduction in size is very closely related to the greater correction of aberration yielded by the use of an aspheric surface. Furthermore, it has been possible to reduce the complexity of construction by the elimination of two elements from the previous designs. This reduction in the number of elements decreases the light losses due to both absorption and surface reflection, such that at f/2.0 the lenses achieve T2.2. Compared with the 25 mm. f/1.8 (T/2.2) Series II, the new Series III f/2.0 (T/2.2) lens has an increased depth of field...

The text above is from the overview article
'18mm and 25mm COOKE SPEED PANCHRO LENS SERIES III - f/2.0, T/2.2'
from 'MOTION PICTURE LEAFLET LEN. 51'.
I scanned it to .pdf with text layer for ya, plz download and feel free to share.


Here we can see the difference between 'old' ser.II (upper) and 'new' ser.II (lower) 18 and 25:
0dOIed5S395iV20QvShuh0F8s7kevwc61waKu8nEYbJ8dTJFfgcdQ_09CutA_WTX2n4Uxk4MstvLV8wnerlNC43Jn50VLwrP7lVdjTnN8xIrULN30ZbCsrv5Uu5wUItLmWCUUOZLxsKv4ZHCQGctLFEqteUm7FDI5p_npm279veCY8WT41h_Vk0pbQ5H_Vyh4xVEwpK6daqSV2f48s3KM8XrQXi4Jl8kF92OWdi-qTNmX6Lv4NrRSTq1iXNBXgVZW1MB_vBNHEtutbqury7F2TcseeDP_mJ8hUnBu1XYktdk5Qs8Mo1_Jl7inOAdpGxfCB4XcJo9IErptSY0MoNlRZ6NR4B50aXGE5yhUhB2FYvDNYnCW70yvqCMRM_cydQVKj_hyhyXosHGYjFv4L8Zlr3xa2q8LBd0u9medV4lMQQaE_DYtQJ_2kl3T997Sli7PxNWamLn1kuzww2AeFcgo8thbPeHZpvvkADtuAaD_N_LzpwqAl_C1SMtYGs9AR3oLgVHZ-rNIR_-bscxWljxBGZ_r3OdLYHIVz_6zHtts9w09hgTKZYiQMQokAHq8zjIPQw3g7xm4Tadk56uNH1cOPLiZ0-BxB47WLYmjF1zQU6bhjEh=w1280-h796-no


What is interesting, It seems that 18 and 25mm have the same optical scheme in both series.
 
Last edited:
Ilya!

Nice finds, I have a copy of that cooke book as well on hand, but don't have the pages for the Series III lenses, so thanks for posting!
 
Chris, thx.

Do yours have something in Contents that differs from mine?
It could be cuase that is just a bunch of leaflets put together.
 
Last edited:
Nice, Thanks
 
Thanks for the compliment... but your kind of shareing is what makes social media like this worth all the noise.

I am always trying to educate myself on cine relevant optics and this kind of info is invaluable. It really is interesting how much gibberish is spouted by our community on optics. Between the manufacturers marketing teams, over zealous sales guys and DPs/directors trying to distinguish themselves it is very easy to become mislead/confused... (I have been guilty of the later;-)

Thanks again and I hope Cooke contuniues to see the marketing advantages of even more sharing..

Ps what do you think about the 'classic pancro' lenses coming out next year?


Ilya O. said:
Your're welcome, Michael!

What a nice Insta you have! WOW!
Click to expand...
 
Michael, welcome. Yes, I think the same, we shall share more lens specs, tests and datasheets so that nobody from marketing dept can bullshiting us with the typical words of nonsense;-)

The more lens diagrams we have the better we can track lens evolution, complexity, price and even the overall character and bokeh.

In some time I will show you guys that there is a reason behind the similiar look of Cooke and LOMO:-)
Many LOMO early lens designs (like oks1-32-1, 1-40-1, 1-50-1) are COOKE's classic Panchro ones, but recalculated to USSR glass (without radioactive components), and thus LOMO's are expected to be more advanced optically. But that is subject to the tests...
 
Last edited:
Aaa Cooke makes now poor marketing:-) I do more for them ahahaha

I read their 5th of Sept 2016 press-release, it just says they will appear somewhere in 2017 and that they will ad new mechanics to the same old Panchro lens schemes.

No other info on the exact model lineup, opt changes if any, coating, series/version number or else. Pity.
 
UPDATE!

Friends, I have done and now publishing the high-quality scan of a so-called Cooke Book:

'Cooke Book' - Lenses for Motion Picture Photography by Taylor Hobson (Rank Precision Industries LTD.) - (with text layer) 600dpi greyscale.pdf

https://goo.gl/jdcGHa

Front page and Contents:



Contents in text for robot indexing:


  1. Modern Cine Camera Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  2. Photographic Resolving Power—by G. H. Cook
  3. Surface Treatment of Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  4. Recent Developments in Anamorphotic Systems—by G. H. Cook
  5. T-Stop Calibration of Photographic Lenses—by G. H. Cook
  6. Electronic Computing Applied to Lens Design—by P. A. Merigold
  7. Cooke Speed Panchro Lenses Series II—by G. H. Cook
  8. Achievement in Optics
  9. Glossary of Optical Terms

  10. 18mm. f/1.7, T/2 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens
  11. 25mm. f/1.8, T/2.2 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  12. 32mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  13. 40mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  14. 50mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  15. 75mm. f/2, T/2.3 Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Series II
  16. 100mm. f/2.5, T/2.8 Cooke Deepfield Lens

  17. Accessory Focus Rings for 6-in., 8-in. and 121/2-in. Telepanchro Lenses
  18. 6-inch f/2.8, T/3.2 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  19. 8-inch f/4, T/4.5 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  20. Telepanchro Lenses for 35mm. Motion Picture Photography
  21. 121/2-inch f/4, T/4.5 Cooke Telepanchro Lens
  23. Depth of Field Tables for 35mm. — in feet
  24. Speed Panchro and Telepanchro Lenses — in metres

  25. Kinetal Lenses for 16mm. Professional Motion Picture Photography
  26. Kinetal Lenses—Unmounted Optical Units
  27. 9mm. Cooke Kinetal Lens f/1.9, T/2 in 16mm. Arriflex Camera Mount
  28. 12.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  29. 17.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  30. 25mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  31. 37.5mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  32. 50mm. „ „ „ f/1.8, T/2 „ „ „
  33. 75mm. „ „ „ f/2.6, T/2.8 „ „ „
  34. 100mm. „ „ „ f/2.6, T/2.8 „ „ „
  35. 150mm. „ „ „ f/3.8, T/4„ „ „
 
Guys, I feel disappointed cause only 39 (sic!) NIKFI Cooke Book was downloaded since 14 of December, 2016th.

Well, I only hope those who did it are real lens nerds and one of them costs 100 regular users:-)

That Nikfi book deserves your attention.
The full Book has OKS, RO, Kinoptic Apochromats, Astro-Berlin Tachars, Cooke Panchros, Baltars, Angeniuex primes and zooms, Kowa Cine-Prominars, Zeiss/Opton Super Speeds, Technovision Anamorphics etc...
And the tests were done for all these lenses using the same standarts and methodology!
This is unique, you know, for such a massive of classic glass of the 60-80-s.
I'll upload the full later, first publishing it step by step on separate lens family basis.
 
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+1 for having the books available again. I would love to have a copy for my archives.
 
Ilya O. said:
That Nikfi book deserves your attention.
The full Book has OKS, RO, Kinoptic Apochromats, Astro-Berlin Tachars, Cooke Panchros, Baltars, Angeniuex primes and zooms, Kowa Cine-Prominars, Zeiss/Opton Super Speeds, Technovision Anamorphics etc...
And the tests were done for all these lenses using the same standarts and methodology!
This is unique, you know, for such a massive of classic glass of the 60-80-s.
I'll upload the full later, first publishing it step by step on separate lens family basis.
Click to expand...
yessss
 
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