Cooke Speed Panchro 18mm?? Anyone use one?

[Dan Hudgins]

18mm f/1.7 = Series II

18mm f/1.7 = Series II

There must be a typo on the Cooke web site if it says that the f/1.7 is a Series III, it is not.

We have had like five of them over time and they all say Series II on them.

It is not sharp in the corners, the quality varies quite bit from one to another.

It is a nice lens with a nice look, some are very sharp and others are just good, there may be a two letter code engraved on the back, the sharp one we had was engraved VS and the softer one engraved BL, but I do not know if that was a code used to tell the lens grade or what the code means?

Yours may be very old, so no Series II, there was a time I think when they made SII and SIII lenses the same year, maybe then they marked them. All of the ones we have had are marked Series II.

We also have some other marked Series III but not the 18mm f/1.7 the Series III is slower f/ stop.

 

[Robert Horwell]

I know the adapters you mean chuck and they do work on lets say Ang 15-150 with S mount, but the cooke S mounts are quite unique , they have a notch cut into the side of them and need a special adapter with a little metal lug that sits into the cut out, the only person i know who makes them is Les Bosher, a couple of companies copied his design, but Les is the only one i would trust for the cookes. lesbosher.co.uk . Les started his career at Samuelsons ( sammys ) way back when.

 

[Robert Horwell]

There must be a typo on the Cooke web site if it says that the f/1.7 is a Series III, it is not.

We have had like five of them over time and they all say Series II on them.

It is not sharp in the corners, the quality varies quite bit from one to another.

It is a nice lens with a nice look, some are very sharp and others are just good, there may be a two letter code engraved on the back, the sharp one we had was engraved VS and the softer one engraved BL, but I do not know if that was a code used to tell the lens grade or what the code means?

Yours may be very old, so no Series II, there was a time I think when they made SII and SIII lenses the same year, maybe then they marked them. All of the ones we have had are marked Series II.

We also have some other marked Series III but not the 18mm f/1.7 the Series III is slower f/ stop.

It's definately a typo, i spotted it a while ago, maybe i will call them one of these days and point it out :bleh: