WTB Cooke Speed Panchros SerII/III.

[aree shonteff]

Hi would like to buy a full set or what ever you have any mount thanks. please email alex.shonteff@hotmail.co.uk

 

[Robert Hart]

There are three Cooke Speed Panchro Series II lenses in ARRI mount owned by cinematographer/DoP Gavan O'Sullivan who passed them to me to fix as they were beyond economic repair. They are now usable but in fair condition.

They are 28mm, with a broken iris blade, 50mm, 70mm. He had taken them with his ARRI 35mm BL camera to Indonesia where he remained for several years. He had more modern lenses and kept these as a backup set. They became badly fungussed over there and in subsequent storage back in Australia. The 28mm iris had also been forced past its end-stop and one of the iris blades had torn and jammed. It remains usable but would give you "interesting" bokeh highlights.

The 50mm in sharpness terms is comparable to a Nikon Noct-Nikkor 58mm. The 70mm is comparably sharp but has noticeable flare due to cleaning scratches on the front element. Any attempt to remedy those will defigure the element and soften the lens. The 28mm is slightly less sharp, possibly due to the now asymmetric iris pupil.

There are also a Macro Kilar 40mm and Macro Kilar 90mm. Both had been fungussed, the 90mm most severely. The front element on the 90mm was badly etched. I refigured it as best I could but remains a little soft on the SI2K. Gavan apparently bought these in for a job which required product shots.

There is is also a Cosmos 180degree fisheye attachment adaptor lens.

All of these lenses do not have antireflective coatings so will flare more than normal. This is fine for a vintage look but not good for modern standards.

There are some grabs from the SI2K through the 50mm lens in a list here :-

http://exposureroom.com/search/?q=DARANGULAFILM&t=1

If that link goes haywire, here is a direct link to one of the grabs.

http://exposureroom.com/members/DARANGULAFILM/7a31a7c66c0d42c5b80bb67d5e007237/

The lenses do not vignette or present brightness falloff into the corners on the SI2K which is comparable to 2K cropped sensor on the RED. On a full 35mm sensor, things might be different. I have no means of checking.

If after all that negative reportage, you might remain interested in the lenses, please let me know and I will ask Gavan if he wants to sell them. My email is RWHHJP@bigpond.com

The Cooke lenses are a little weird to focus as the little "rat ears" handles are for holding the lens from spinning in the ARRI mount as you rotate the front focus ring his is not very apparent.

 

[Robert Hart]

After consulting with the owner of a couple of lenses I referred to here as Cooke lenses I discovered I had inadvertently misrepresented them. They are actually Taylor, Taylor and Hobson Speed Panchro Series II lenses. Apparently, the lenses were made in the same plant in Leicester England as the Cooke lenses. The 28mm lens I refer to above was actually a Schneider-Kreusnach.

For rthe benefit of the enquirer above, I took some frame grabs with the only 35mm video system I have, a Sony PMW-EX1 with Letus Extreme 35mm groundglass based adaptor with the lenses mounted via the PL-Mount and ARRI Standard mount adaptor.

Despite being damaged from fungus and stripped coatings, the lenses yield well for their age. They are not soft into the corners and the lines in the test chart are straight. Those old engineers were able to get it right. They yield image sharpness to the practical limit of the EX1.

For curiosity sake and for those who strode into the ranks of Red owners from 35mm adaptors to go on a nostalgia adaptor trip, here is a link to the frame grabs.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/alternative-imaging-methods/129125-roiding-extreme-4.html

 

[Stephen Williams]

Taylor Taylor Hobosn is the same company that became Cooke Taylor Hobson. They had a 75mm but not a 70mm.

Take gre<t care if a lens has fungus, it can spread to other lenses, which is why no company will want to repair it.

 

[Robert Hart]

Stephen. Thanks for your inputs, particularly your cautions on cross contamination of lenses with fungus. As for these lenses, I put on a pair of glasses and looked closer at the lens inscriptions myself. It turns out they are Cooke, made by Rank Taylor Hobson.