Hit The Lottery? Cooke Lens Series

boojum

boojum

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I am a Cooke fan. They have their own stamp and are exotic and fine cinema lenses with stratospheric prices. Cooke has released a new lens, 18mm, in its SP3 series for mirrorless cameras. They will be tested in London on the 19th of September on various mounts including M mounts. So if you are a bit of a lens fanatic and have a large chunk of money to, erm, "invest" in your hobby or profession you can jump on the five lens set (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1851866-REG/cooke_sp3_6_way_sp3_full_frame_6_lens_prime.html) and take your heirs out of the running and dash their hopes. If I only had that kind of money. For me it would be squander, for others spend or invest. At any rate they are interesting.

B&H has an adapter for less than US$500 to mount these lenses on M bodies. If you buy even a single lens Cooke will let you redeem the adapter free of charge. At $4.500 for a 50 it is what Leica is going for. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1784162-REG/cooke_15_50_7_0_sp3_50mm_full_frame.html

I'd love to see what they look like when shot. But I am not holding my breath.

Added later: Check out this YT vid

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Rayt said:
If they are available separately then I would be seriously interested in just one. I own the PS945 and it’s totally worth the price.
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B&H has them separately. I am a real fan of the lenses. There is, in my opinion, a magic to how they handle lilght. And what are we doing with cameras but capturing light? Each lens is US$4500 and if I understand B&H correctly they will throw in the adapter you want. The link is in the first post where the 50 is talked about. If I could only rationalize it, and find the money.
 
That Cooke lens is expensive, but I have to wonder what Skyllaney is gonna charge for their Bertele lens, should they ever get around to producing it.
 
dexdog said:
That Cooke lens is expensive, but I have to wonder what Skyllaney is gonna charge for their Bertele lens, should they ever get around to producing it.
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The two lenses see differently. The SBS has the vivid color and contrast while the Cooke has the softer colors and definition while still being sharp and then that glow. I'm talking about my Amotal but think it applies across the line. And I wonder what Skyllaney would charge, too. I like my SBS a lot and am grateful I have it. It is great with color and a good lens in general. I wonder if the SBS will be made as a production item. It is a great lens and really takes Sonnars up to 11. Skyllaney knows how to make it so will it appear as a regular item? I believe they'd sell some. If you like Sonnars a lot it is a must-have, ditto if you just like lenses a lot.
 
At that price they should include the young lady with the pumped up lips as acessory perpetual model. Pretty girl. Beautiful bokeh. Elegant lenses.
 
Some twenty years ago, when I was still servicing motion picture cameras, I had a complete set of Cooke Speed Panchro, Series 2 and Series 3, 35mm motion picture camera lenses in ARRI standard mount, in like new condition. I made an adapter to use them on a Panasonic GH-1 and had fun with them for a bit, then stupidly sold the set for what I thought at the time was a fantastic price (I had purchased the set in the late 1990's for $2500, and sold them in 2010 for $7500). Now they're worth two to three times that amount and I could never afford to re-acquire them. The way they rendered on black and white film was sublime.

Best,
-Tim
 
Timmyjoe said:
Some twenty years ago, when I was still servicing motion picture cameras, I had a complete set of Cooke Speed Panchro, Series 2 and Series 3, 35mm motion picture camera lenses in ARRI standard mount, in like new condition. I made an adapter to use them on a Panasonic GH-1 and had fun with them for a bit, then stupidly sold the set for what I thought at the time was a fantastic price (I had purchased the set in the late 1990's for $2500, and sold them in 2010 for $7500). Now they're worth two to three times that amount and I could never afford to re-acquire them. The way they rendered on black and white film was sublime.

Best,
-Tim
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I am taken by how the Cooke lenses handle light. They have some magic to them. And if you want to know what expensive is, look at some of their lens prices! Sheesh, really high, hundreds of thousands. Gratitude is big in my life for a number of reasons and having stumbled across Cooke and gotten a nice Amotal at a good price and in good condition is one small reason.

I saw a clip of the Cooke factory, the old one. Sheesh, hardly more than a bike shed. No spotless lab-like setting like the big Japanese manufacturers. I am sure the new factory is much more 21sr century. Regardless, Cooke makes some interesting lenses.
 
Dogman said:
At that price they should include the young lady with the pumped up lips as acessory perpetual model. Pretty girl. Beautiful bokeh. Elegant lenses.
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In defense of Cooke, the SP-3 series all go for ~US$4500 which is high but also Leica territory. If I could just find a rationalization, and the funds, I would indulge myself. It would probably help my pics as much as eating Bresson's favored harissa but it would make me feel better, shallow soul that I am.
 
I want to post this as I like it a lot and it shows how the Amotal handles light. I may be mistaken, and not the first time, but I think the Amotal does a nice job on the light in this photo of a local fishing boat in the mooring basin. I am not objective at all, true. Anyway, here is a night shot of the Muir Milach.

As lame as I am I had to add another, and another night shot in the same place. That's a cruise ship off the port side of the stern-wheeler.

L1002652 by West Phalia, on Flickr​
 
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