Cooke 5/i vs s4/i

Gevorg Sarkisian · February 5, 2011

What are the main differences between Cooke S4/i and 5/i lenses except the physical size and the T stop difference. Has anybody used them both so we can compare them together?

Thanks

Mathew Rudenberg · February 5, 2011

What are the main differences between Cooke S4/i and 5/i lenses except the physical size and the T stop difference. Has anybody used them both so we can compare them together?

Thanks

I shot with a mixed set of S4s and S5s for a season - I like the Cookes a lot and I'd say there's very little visual difference between the two.

The only visual difference I noticed was I felt like the bokeh on the S5s was slightly creamier at a 2.0 than with the S4s at the same stop. Not a very technical description I know, I mean a little smoother and softer.

They're beautiful at a 1.3 but I seldom shoot that wide. They are much much heavier than the S4s, heavier than the angenieaux optimos zooms as well, so I'd keep that in mind if you have a lot of hand held.

Gevorg Sarkisian · February 6, 2011

Since the S5 's are newer lenses I was assuming that they should have been a little sharper then the s4's, but you have experienced the oposite.

Seamus Mulligan-Ferry · February 7, 2011

Mathew pretty much covered it. Cooke didn't reinvent the wheel when designing the 5/i's. They are excellent lenses that match the S4 "Cooke Look" as well as with the Cooke T2.8 Pancros. Up until recently, I don't believe the 18mm 5/i was available, so at least on the wide end most everybody was supplementing with S4s to complete the set.

If you look at them on a lens projector they will perform very similarly, although with an extra stop the look at T1.4 is kind of different--in that you have the familiar Cooke "softness/warmth" coupled with the shallower depth of field of shooting another stop open which was striking the first few times I saw it. How practical and applicable that would be would depend on the shoot, of course. They hold pretty consistent when opened up all the way, although there seemed to be just a little bit more snap stopped down to at least a T2.0, as to be expected.

Essentially, you decide if the project is right for Cookes or not, then you decide at what T-stop/budget you are going to be working with. If you have tons of night exteriors then maybe 5/i's will be right, but S4s should definitely not be forgotten. As noted, they do have the advantage of being much lighter (The 5s weigh about the same as Master Primes). Of course, they do not have the somewhat clunky-feeling illuminated focus scales, which, not being an AC, I don't care about!