Cooke has announced the S4 FF/i series, a set of six full-frame prime lenses that brings the S4 name back in a new format. The set covers 18mm to 100mm at a constant T2.0, in PL or LPL mount, and is built around a 43.3mm image circle for full-frame cameras such as the ARRI Alexa LF, Sony VENICE, and RED V-Raptor VV. Each lens is priced at $15,000.
The S4 FF/i is a new optical design, not a rehousing of the Super 35 S4/i. Cooke describes it as a full-frame evolution of the S4/i, keeping the general rendering characteristics the series is known for — warm skin tones and a gentle falloff from the center of the frame to the edges — while updating the mechanics and coverage for current digital cameras. All six lenses are color balanced and color matched, carry Cooke’s /i metadata technology, and are handmade in Leicester, England.
From S4/i to S4 FF/i
The original S4 was introduced in 1998 and became the first major product line of the revitalized Cooke Optics under Les Zellan. The Super 35 series eventually grew to 18 focal lengths, from 12mm to 300mm, and is credited with establishing much of what is now called the Cooke Look: warm color rendition, controlled flare and aberration, and a cam-based focus mechanism that allowed unusually detailed focus scales. Cooke added /i Technology metadata to the series in 2005. The S4 design earned Cooke a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award in 1999 and a Primetime Emmy Award in 2000. The original S4 became an industry staple. Its mechanical design was so successful that the cam system it introduced became the model for the vast majority of rehoused lenses on the market today.
Production of the S4/i ended on January 1, 2025, a retirement we covered at the time in our S4 farewell article. Less than two years later, the name returns. Where the original set was built for Super 35 film and early digital cinema cameras, the S4 FF/i is built for the full-frame cameras that now dominate high-end production.
A Personal Note on the Original S4
This announcement has a family connection for us. During the mid-1990s, while Cooke was developing the original S4, my father, Paul Duclos, was involved in the design process as head of the lens department at Clairmont Camera. He travelled to the UK to meet with Cooke and review designs along with Denny Clairmont, and the late cinematographer Rodney Charters. The S4’s development included direct input from the rental houses and cinematographers who would have to use the lenses every day, and that shows in the finished product: the cam focus system, the detailed scales, and mechanics built to be serviced are the priorities of people who maintained and pulled focus on lenses for a living. Thirty years on, those same priorities are visible in the S4 FF/i specification sheet.
Optics and Mechanics
The six focal lengths are 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm, all T2.0 to T16. The iris is a nine-blade design with curved blades; the Super 35 S4/i used eight straight blades, and Cooke states the new iris keeps bokeh rounder as the lens is stopped down. Focus rotation is 270 degrees to the minimum object distance end stop. Focus scales are available in imperial or metric. Some will consider T2.0 a bit slow, but it is a respectable speed, and a consistent maximum aperture across the set has practical value.
Front diameter is a common 87mm across the set, and every lens except the 18mm accepts M82 x 0.75 screw-in filters; the 18mm has no filter thread. Weights range from 1,450g for the 50mm to 1,800g for the 18mm, which makes this one of the lighter full-frame sets Cooke has produced, and notably lighter per lens than the Super 35 S4/i equivalents. Cooke also applies a scratch-resistant coating to the series.
Having had prototype S4 FF/i lenses in hand, the first thing that stood out was how familiar they felt despite the smaller, lighter bodies. The mechanics feel familiar alongside practically any of Cooke’s high-end cinema lenses from the past 25 years. The handling has not been reinvented for its own sake; it feels like an S4 adapted for full-frame cameras.
On rendering, Cooke describes a look with flare that takes on the color of the light source while contrast softens, sharpness that holds to the edges of the full-frame image, and skin tones inherited from the S4/i. We have had prototype S4 FF/i lenses in hand, and based on that time with them, Cooke’s claims are accurate.
Close Focus
The specification that stands out on paper is close focus. Minimum marked object distances are 300mm (12 in.) for the 18mm, 280mm (11 in.) for both the 25mm and 35mm, 350mm (14 in.) for the 50mm, 450mm (18 in.) for the 75mm, and 650mm (2 ft. 3 in.) for the 100mm — an average of 385mm, just over fifteen inches, across the set. For reference, the original Super 35 S4/i 100mm had a minimum focus of roughly three feet. A full-frame T2.0 set that focuses this close across every focal length is genuinely useful for narrative work, where faces and small details are often the shot.
Pricing and Availability
Cooke lists the S4 FF/i at $15,000 for each focal length (£11,000 / €13,000 in the UK and Europe), sold individually or as a complete six-lens set.
The S4 FF/i will be available for pre-order from Duclos Lenses.
| Specification | Cooke S4 FF/i |
|---|---|
| Focal Lengths | 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm |
| T-Stop Range | T2.0 – T16 |
| Format Coverage | Full Frame (43.3mm image circle) |
| Mount | PL / LPL with /i Technology contacts |
| Iris | 9 blades, curved |
| Focus Rotation | 270° |
| Min. Focus (marked) | 280mm – 650mm depending on focal length (18mm: 300mm) |
| Front Diameter | 87mm |
| Filter Thread | M82 x 0.75 (except 18mm, no thread) |
| Weight | 1,450g – 1,800g depending on focal length |
| Price | $15,000 per lens |
Final Thoughts
Stated plainly, the S4 FF/i is Cooke applying the S4 formula — T2.0, warm rendition, serviceable mechanics, detailed scales, to the format the industry now shoots most. The set is smaller than the Super 35 line it descends from, both in focal length count (six, against eighteen) and in physical size, and the close focus figures are the strongest objective improvement in the specification. Based on our time with the prototype lenses, the new set lives up to the S4 name; what remains is seeing the production lenses go to work. I am glad to see Cooke embracing its heritage and reviving the S4 line. The natural audience is rental houses and cinematographers who want to own their own tools. For our family, the announcement closes a loop that started in Leicester in the mid-1990s.