Premium Member John Sprung Posted February 21, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted February 21, 2008 Here's a blurb from SCRI re. NAB this year: COOKE OPTICS, C10319 (P+S Technik booth in the Bavarian Pavillion) Cooke Optics, maker of precision lenses for cinematography and ultra high-end photography, will showcase its S4/i series of Prime lenses at NAB 2008. Equipped with Cooke's /i Technology, these lenses are fast, light, and enable film and digital cameras to automatically record key lens and camera data for every film frame shot and provide it to post-production teams digitally. Companies with equipment supporting the /i protocol include Aaton, ARRI, Avid, Cinematography Electronics, CMotion, Dalsa, Mark Roberts Motion Control, Preston Cinema Systems, RED, The Pixel Farm and Service Vision. Cooke lenses will also be featured at the exhibit booths of JVC and Aaton, and Cooke's limited edition RED Set of lenses will be on display at the RED booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Max Jacoby Posted February 21, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted February 21, 2008 The Cooke Red lenses are just regular S4s with a red colored logo. The price is still the same though. They got nothing to do with Red's own lenses, which are not Cooke glass but rehoused Sigmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 They were in last month's AC mag as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daren Findling Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 The Cooke Red lenses are just regular S4s with a red colored logo. The price is still the same though. They got nothing to do with Red's own lenses, which are not Cooke glass but rehoused Sigmas. They are indeed the $400 sigma 18-50. I do however suspect that a division of cooke is rehousing them although cooke would never admit or want that information to get out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted February 27, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted February 27, 2008 They are indeed the $400 sigma 18-50. I do however suspect that a division of cooke is rehousing them although cooke would never admit or want that information to get out. Hi Daren, The lettering on the lenses are typical Cooke, it's a shame thats where the similarity ends. Hopefully the long awaited Red 18-85 & The Red primes will be what were looking for. Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Gross Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 The RED zoom is rehoused in the UK but it is emphatically not a Cooke product in any way shape or form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daren Findling Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Hi Daren, The lettering on the lenses are typical Cooke, it's a shame thats where the similarity ends. Hopefully the long awaited Red 18-85 & The Red primes will be what were looking for. Stephen I have heard that the 18-85 might be a rebranded russian lens. This lens shows a lot more promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Max Jacoby Posted February 28, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted February 28, 2008 The RED zoom is rehoused in the UK but it is emphatically not a Cooke product in any way shape or form. Emphatically indeed ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Lehnert Posted March 1, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 1, 2008 Sorry for me RED-cosmos-for-dummies asking for even further clarification, but as someone prefering Cooke and increasingly bedazzled by how the RED subforum developed recently, let alone the product; may I just ask: - The RED lenses are rehoused Sigma lenses, and have in no way at all any relation to Cooke? - The Cooke RED edition lenses are a marketing stunt that JJ and Cooke agreed upon, with a standard Cooke S4 having an added RED logo? (hmm, so, similar to the (red) initiative on various products..., from overpriced T-shirts to iPods... :) ) - The Cooke S4i is supporting the RED, nothing more or less? So, who in the UK is rehousing the RED lenses in the UK, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Gross Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 RED lenses are rehoused by someone else who is not affiliated with Cooke. Cooke took it upon themselves (or more accurately, Les took it upon himself) to market his RED set of lenses with RED-colored markings. They are the same (excellent) glass as the standard Cooke lenses with their yellow markings. The RED camera will eventually have the /i technology up and running. Currently they are shipping cameras with the mechanical space for the electrical contacts in the lens mount but no wiring in place. So when /i compatibility becomes available it will likely necessitate shipping the camera back to RED for an upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Lehnert Posted March 2, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 2, 2008 Max, Mitch, thanks for the replies to this pseudo-byzantine web of "whodunnit" unfortunately involving my beloved Cooke coop ;) ... although in the re-housing point, which was my prime point, opposite views are put forward... ah well, I guess that's what one needs to expect with RED right now, I assume. Thanks also for the info that /i-compatibility is NOT yet here, and will require more FedExing or UPSing that body around the planet. When you did that with a 35 BL for an upgrade, at least that camera was originally expensive and huge. Today, "non-prosumer" gear gets the same treatment... (satire, it's satire; please, future/current(?) RED users, read it like that!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted March 2, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 2, 2008 RED lenses are rehoused by someone else who is not affiliated with Cooke. Hi Mitch, Can I ask who the company is or your source of information? Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Wells Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Hi Stephen, you asked for information not a guess ! But I would think some of the folks formerly with Optex as likely suspects ! Certainly have the requisite experience in this field..... -Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted March 2, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 2, 2008 Hi Stephen, you asked for information not a guess ! But I would think some of the folks formerly with Optex as likely suspects !Certainly have the requisite experience in this field..... -Sam Hi Sam, Optex lens conversions were of a very high quality. Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Nordin Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Optex lens conversions were of a very high quality. Which the Red zoom is definitely not. Not that it's terrible, but the manufacturing tolerances are pretty weak. I've shot with two of them over the last month or so, and each one had different manifestations of slop in the mechanics. The one I used last week had the annoying behavior of changing iris whenever you use the zoom ring. So to rack zoom, you have to keep your thumb pressed down on the iris ring to hold it in place...very disappointing for a $6500 product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Gross Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Hi Mitch, Can I ask who the company is or your source of information? Stephen Oh, you can ask... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Stephen Williams Posted March 3, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 3, 2008 Oh, you can ask... Hi Mitch, You can pm me if you prefer! :lol: Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Chris Keth Posted March 4, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted March 4, 2008 Should you use aRED zoom, just start by covering the focus scale with tape and making your own. Theirs is so imprecise it's completely useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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