NAB-AT-HOME: 2020 Cooke Talks Lenses and Industry Wisdom

Wisdom comes from experience. Cooke’s expertise gained from years of making cinema lenses ranging from some of the very first cinema lenses to new Large Format 1.8x anamorphic lenses. In this NAB-AT-HOME 2020 video Les from Cooke and I talk about lenses, the state of the industry, and wisdom learned from a long career.

Large Format. Full Frame. That super shallow depth of field. The evolution of filmmaking has been in a state of constant change, which seems to speed up faster and faster. Cooke Optics showed off new additions to their Macro line-up, Large Format Anamorphic, and Large Format lenses. The continued pace of lens additions gives cinematographers the tools needed to create beautiful and cinematic footage consistently.

Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus Primes T2.0

New to the Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus Prime lens line-up are three macro lenses: 60mm, 90mm, and 150mm. These primes cover the full-frame cinema camera sensors up to at least the full sensor area of the RED Weapon 8K (46.31mm image circle).

The Cooke S7/i Full Frame Plus Prime lenses feature a superb optical and mechanical performance, control of flare, distortion, veiling glare, and spherical aberrations at full aperture. The cam-type focus mechanism allows for smooth focus adjustments. Modular construction increases ease of maintenance and serviceability.

And, the S7/i lenses come equipped with /i Technology for frame by frame digital information capture, as do all modern Cooke cine lenses for film and digital capture.

Available in focal lengths: 16,18, 21, 25, 27, 32, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100 and 135mm.

Feature Highlights

• Focal lengths: 16,18, 21, 25, 27, 32, 40, 50, 65, 75, 100 and 135mm
• T2.0 – T22 aperture
• Covers at least 46.31mm image circle
• Colour matched to Anamorphic/i, S4/i, miniS4/i, 5/i and Pancro/i Classic lenses
• An award-winning cam-style mechanism for smooth focus adjustments
• Especially well balanced for astigmatism and correct for lateral and longitudinal aberrations over the entire image area
• Supplied with the next generation of /i Technology for lens metadata capture
• Linear iris
• The Cooke Look®, of course

The Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus Lenses

These Cooke lenses represent the next step in the evolution of filmmaking: large format production with anamorphic characteristics, including flare and oval bokeh.

Coverage circle covers a full 24 x 36 still size sensor with 1.8 squeeze. At 2x squeeze you would lose too many pixels. At 1.6x you won’t get enough anamorphic character. At 1.8x you have that sweet spot with a great anamorphic feel and about 90% of the pixels at 2.4:1. Shoot at 2.7:1 and you have all the available frame and 100% of the pixels.

And, the Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus lenses come equipped with /i Technology for frame by frame digital information capture, as do all modern Cooke cine lenses for film and digital capture.