Rare Cooke Varopanchro 10-30mm T1.6, Super 16mm Zoom lens. Aaton & PL Mount

Gregory Oke · March 3, 2022

I am selling my Cooke Varopanchro Super 16 zoom lens. It is 10-30mm and a very fast T1.6 throughout.

Have put it on sale on Ebay Germany but should be fine to accept international bids (let me know if you have any problems) - https://www.ebay.de/itm/294844101109

Cooke only made a very limited number. A version of this lens was used to shoot scenes in the film Carol. Gives wonderfully cinematic images that you would expect from a Cooke.

The focus, Aperture and zoom are all very smooth. The glass is clean and free from any fungus, fogging or scratches. I recently had my Aaton LTR serviced and had the techs have a quick look at the lens and they confirmed it was in very good condition, especially the movement of the zoom and focus given the lens' age. There is however a tiny chip on the rear element (see note and pictures in google drive) but it does not affect image quality.

It is currently fitted with an Aaton mount and that is what I have been using it with. I have an Aaton LTR and have shot work and tests with this lens. It's really beautiful. I cut together a small selection of Super 16 footage shot with this exact lens and my LTR - link below. I didn't adjust the image beyond making an H.264 from what I received from the different labs.

The lens comes with it's own flight case, two small rods for focus and zoom control, an extra PL mount (see note below) and a specific lens support for 15mm rods.

An amazing, crazy fast Super16 lens perfect for your Aaton, Arri SR, 416 or newer digital cameras with a Super16 crop sensor.

I'm based in Berlin but very happy to look into options for Worldwide shipping, just get in touch.

If you have any further questions please feel free to get in touch. Very happy to help.

Google drive link with photos of the lens and also Super16 footage and tests shot with the lens.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xRQ1HOS7LTbsQhG94GLRFEmYQJshYRy_?usp=sharing

Vimeo link of 16mm footage shot with this lens

https://vimeo.com/684172700/794033d2e3

Some extra info on the lens:

https://www.oldfastglass.com/cooke-1030mm-t16

Ed Lachmann interview in which he mentions using his personal version of this lens when shooting Carol:

https://www.fdtimes.com/2016/01/29/ed-lachmans-super-16-carol/

**** Two important notes - one on the tiny chip on the rear element and one on the included PL mount - Might seem like overkill on the info front - but please don’t let this put you off, I just wanted to be as up front as possible and give lots of info to a potential buyer ****

There is a tiny chip on the rear element. I have tried to photograph it as clearly as possible. There are more photos in the google drive link below.

This chip, as far as everything I have shot with the lens, does not affect the image.

All the footage in the google drive was shot with this lens and the tiny chip. I spoke with someone at a rental house as of course wanted to try and give as clear information on this as possible when selling. They said that if it's not influencing the image on footage coming back then that's great, the only time it might be visible would be under certain flaring conditions? For this reason, I did some tests this week, where I tried to flare the lens and also shot some charts to check for any aberrations showing in the image. These are included in the google drive too. I can't see any sign of this tiny chip on the image but I would definitely encourage anyone bidding to check for themselves all of the footage.

PL mount - there is a PL mount with a selection of shims included in the auction. I have never used the PL mount apart from this week when I did some Digital Tests with a Canon c500 on Super16 sensor crop (see the google drive). I am definitely not a lens tech and when mounting the PL mount on the lens the spacing was not correct. I couldn't get the right number of shims to keep the lens parfocal and or maintain infinity focus quite correctly. It was fine to shoot some tests but if you would like the lens in PL then I would 100% recommend taking it to a proper lens tech to set it up and collimate it properly/get the spacing correct and adjust the mount as necessary.

It will be shipped to the buyer setup perfectly with its Aaton mount - included in the videos is a Zoom test, shot on 16mm with my Aaton LTR. It is perfectly parfocal and has very little/unnoticeable breathing.