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Cooke equivalents

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Clayton Burkhart

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Here is a silly question.
What lenses have you folks out there found which produce images that in your mind resemble the famous Cooke Look?
This could either be stills or cinema lenses.
I am curious because I may need to cut with some Cooke lenses on an upcoming project, but I will not always have them available.

I recognize that this a very subjective thing, so be gentle!

:smiley:
 
I was doing some test shots with a Nikkor 58mm, I think it is probably one of the better still lenses that has some of that depth of field fall off on motion ... as cooke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD7Zc5z3Y5k


[edit ... probably closer to a panavision look then a cooke i guess ... i really like both looks for the feel as things move in and out of focus ]
 
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Probably your best bet would be some old russian lenses and some leica r's I suppose…

It also depends on which Cooke series you are trying to match, older S2-S3 or newer S4/i-S5/i?
 
Yep. Leica R would be my best suggestion also. Mini S4's would be perfect though :)
 
This is a bit of a subjective notion so please do not take much notice. The "GN Auto NIKKOR 1:2.8 45mm" might go fairly close to a Cooke Speed Panchro Series 2 look. It breathes rather badly in the last 1/8th turn to close focus. It is a pancake-style lens. It yields straight edges to edge of frame (rectilinear). Unlike the Cooke Speed Panchro 50mm T2 Series 2, the front element front surface is convex not planar so it is a different optical design. Another contender might be the more modern Voigtlander Ultron f2 40mm. This lens also yields straight edges to edge of frame. It breathes through its entire focus movement. It appears to be similar in general principle to the Nikkor 45mm. Hopefully, someone the likes of Matthew Duclos will put paid to any misinformation I might be conveying here.
 
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In terms of the still lenses that might work, I'll second the notion for some Leica-Rs, but they don't pull focus anything like the Cookes at all. Something to keep in mind. Rendering-wise they aren't that far off.
 
Tommaso Alvisi said:
phil, are you referring to the lack of breathing and the cam based focusing?
Click to expand...

Yep. And the shape/form of the elements comes into play here.

Locked off though, not too bad.

When doing something like this though it's hard to find a "perfect" match really. There's always a compromise.
 
Actually, I think the old Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 is the lens I would say is the closest. It has a radioactive element (not harmful unless you eat the lens), which yellows it with age, but that can be cleared by giving the lens a sunbath for a couple of weeks. What's important though is that at wide open it is a completely different lens than stopped down 1.5-2.0 stops. It is very dreamy, incredible for skin and still somehow sharp. Once stopped down, it becomes one of the sharpest out there.

After that I would say the Minolta Rokkor 58/1.2 delivers bokeh very, very similar to a Cooke at about f2.0-f4.0
 
Mark K. said:
I think the Angie Optimo DP zooms cut in with Cooke glass very nicely.
Click to expand...

I don't like the Optimo DPs quite as much as the Cookes, but I was about to recommend the same for an inexpensive alternative.

Never used the mini S4s but I suppose that would be even better!

The Optimo DPs are a steal. Great lenses and small and surprisingly inexpensive. Plus the convenience of a zoom is easy to underestimate.
 
Clayton Burkhart said:
Actually, I think the old Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 is the lens I would say is the closest. It has a radioactive element (not harmful unless you eat the lens), which yellows it with age, but that can be cleared by giving the lens a sunbath for a couple of weeks. What's important though is that at wide open it is a completely different lens than stopped down 1.5-2.0 stops. It is very dreamy, incredible for skin and still somehow sharp. Once stopped down, it becomes one of the sharpest out there.

After that I would say the Minolta Rokkor 58/1.2 delivers bokeh very, very similar to a Cooke at about f2.0-f4.0
Click to expand...
I have the 50mm Takumar as well as some others. Playing around with them on MFT cameras but might adapt for Red as they offer a different look than some of my other lenses. I also have the 50mm F4 Macro. That's a nice one. The focus rings on these lenses are silky smooth.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
I have the 50mm Takumar as well as some others. Playing around with them on MFT cameras but might adapt for Red as they offer a different look than some of my other lenses. I also have the 50mm F4 Macro. That's a nice one. The focus rings on these lenses are silky smooth.
Click to expand...

Interesting, because I was just looking at some Takumar footage the other day, and I have to say it looks darn close to a Cooke.
I will see if I can post it.
 
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