[LargeFormat] Cooke Lenses - Suggestions for Future Models?

[john frost]

Ahhhhh - any possibility to market the rejects under a Cocam subsidiary
label???

john (:>) cheep, as usual!

Clive Warren wrote:
> 
> At 1:09 am +0100 18/7/02, Clive Warren wrote:
> >At 12:51 pm +0100 17/7/02, Clive Warren wrote:
> >>Dear All,
> >>
> >>As you know (if you have been reading the EMails), Cooke Optics has
> >>recently moved back into the production of large format lenses.
> >>Their first new lens after a 50 year absence from manufacturing
> >>large format optics is the Soft Focus PS945 229mm, f/4.5
> >>
> >>Many people responded to a request from Cooke Optics on the f32.net
> >>Discussion Forum for suggestions as to the next lens they should
> >>manufacture.
> snip
> 
> A short report for you from the Cooke Optics visit.
> 
> The drive to Leicester was uneventful although as usual I ended up
> working late the night before. Luckily the weather was overcast all
> the way up there and there was no temptation to take the country
> route through the beautiful Vale of Evesham - a great 'cycle ride BTW
> if you are ever in the area on two wheels.
> 
> Finding the factory was a bit of a challenge, managed to catch the
> sign out of the corner of my eye and drove into the visitors' car
> park. The factory is relatively modern, constructed within the last
> three years or so and is a sophisticated building including dust free
> areas and atmospherically sealed rooms for the coating processes.
> 
> Barbara Lowry met me at the door and we started chatting about lenses
> and cameras almost immediately. A planned one hour meeting ended up
> taking the whole day and I was introduced to many people both working
> on the shop floor and the design and management teams.
> 
> There are a few photos of the factory and some of the people that I
> will post in a separate article, probably in the Discussion Forum.
> 
> We discussed the future production plans for large format lenses and
> I passed on many of the comments made in the posts in this thread.
> The final decisions have yet to be made, however as soon as I know
> anything definite you will hear it first here!
> 
> Suffice to say that Cooke have been influenced greatly by the
> comments made in both the Forum postings and those here on the
> mailing list. They understand that there is potentially a market for
> lightweight reasonably priced field lenses.
> 
> Cooke were very interested in some of the toys in my kit bag - I took
> a whole range of lenses along to illustrate the potential for
> lightweight and compact field camera lenses, including a 90mm
> Angulon, 135mm Ektar Wide Field, and 203mm f7.7 Ektar and a 305mm
> G-Claron. We also talked a lot about Protar Series V lenses in
> addition to the Cooke Series VIIb wide angle lenses.
> 
> I managed to retrieve the lenses from the chief optical designer as
> it was clear that he wanted to separate the elements from their
> groups and start measuring refractive indices etc! Hey, those are my
> working lenses!
> 
> Overall, Cooke Optics were very friendly and their factory is a
> shining example of a very high quality manufacturing process. It was
> great to see how traditional lens building processes were integrated
> with processes run on CNC machinery and the lengths that were taken
> to ensure the ultimate in quality control. There is no such thing as
> a second quality Cooke lens - if it is not perfect then it is
> scrapped!
> 
> If Cooke decide to make the lenses suggested by feedback from the
> list and the Discussion Forum then we could have a superb range of
> new lenses to choose from for field work.
> 
> Thanks again for all the comments made earlier.
> 
> Cheers,
>         Clive
> 
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