a blog by Matthew Duclos
As of April 1st 2019, ZGC is now Cooke Americas (and no it is not an April Fool’s joke). Nothing much will change apart from the name. Same great people, products, and authorized service. The switch is another part of Cooke’s ongoing commitment to worldwide service and support.
Continue reading “Cooke Lands in America”
Cooke is keeping up with the trend by adding large format anamorphic lenses to its esteemed lineup.
After enthusiastic reception for the Cooke S7/i’s, this is certainly the right step forward.
First focal lengths to come will be 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm, followed by 32mm, 135mm, and 180mm – all T2.3 with 110mm fronts. Continue reading “Something New Is Cooke-ing…”
That’s right. It’s a lens test. I’ll be joining host Michael Koerner at his facility Koerner Camera Systems in Portland Oregon in just a few weeks. The perfect bridge between NAB and Cine Gear – Koerner will be hosting a range of manufacturers to showcase their latest gear. Less of a shootout and more of a hands-on event, we’ll be pairing up cameras and lenses and giving each a go to see what works best in different situations.
We’ll have lenses and reps from the following:
So how about it? Join us! No need to RSVP. You can find the event details over on Koerner’s facebook page. Looks like it’s going to be a good time. Come hang out. Drink. Eat. Mingle. I’ll have some swag on hand to give away. If you’re a lens geek like me and Michael Koerner, you’ll be in good company.
It’s no surprise that Cooke is joining the Full Frame revolution. They’ve cornered the market on stylized, romantic cinema glass and now they’re taking aim at the Vista Vision crowd to ensure the Cooke Look is carried over to just about any format out there. The new S7/i primes will cover an image circle up to 46.31mm which is slightly larger than standard Full Frame (hence the “PLUS” in the product name). Just ahead of NAB 2017, let’s take a look at the next big addition to the Vista Vision lens market from Cooke. Continue reading “S7/i Full Frame Plus: Cooke’s Answer to Vista Vision”
When Cooke advertises their lenses as “hand built in the UK”, they’re not joking. As someone who’s been lucky enough to experience the Cooke factory first-hand, I can confirm that every single lens is hand built by skilled technicians. This video shot by Florin Gabor back in 2013 takes us on a nice tour through the factory and shows a glimpse of each step of the lens manufacturing process. Continue reading “Ever Wonder How Cooke Lenses Are Made?”
Over the course of two days, in a studio in Burbank, California, a band of self-proclaimed “lens geeks” set out to complete the ultimate vintage cinema lens test. The project first began as a collaboration between ShareGrid’s Brent Barbano, and Duclos Lenses’ own Matthew Duclos. Initially, Barbano and Duclos had been planning to complete a rather small-scale lens test with the industry’s most popular and widely used vintage lenses. However, upon approaching director and cinematographer Mark Lafleur to ask him to participate, they discovered that he too was getting ready to carry out his own vintage lens test. The two sides decided to join forces, and before long a whole team was assembled. With Lafleur and Barbano as Directors and Executive Producers, and Duclos as Lens Consultant, Kyle Stryker was brought on as Director of Photography. The team also came to include Camera Assistants Matthew Borek and Michelle Diaz, and Nick Ferriero as Editor. Continue reading “The Ultimate Vintage Lens Test”
Vintage lenses have been a major trend in the motion picture industry and Cooke is in a prime position to take advantage of their unrivaled heritage. They’ve just announced they’ll be reviving the classic Cooke Speed Panchro line of prime lenses that were first made in the 20’s and ran all the way through the 60’s. Let’s take a look at what information is currently available from Cooke. Continue reading “Cooke Brings Back The Panchro Primes”
As we posted previously, all the product releases we were expecting were already posted prior to NAB, so there’s really no surprises here. For the most part, the next few posts will be a collection of photos from the show floor, with more to come… Continue reading “NAB 2016 Recap, Day 1”
NAB has officially begun. It looks like just about every lens manufacturer couldn’t keep it in their pants and dropped their news ahead of the actual show, with a few exceptions. This post is a general roundup up the news announced as of Sunday night before the show. We’ll be posting a daily wrap-up with a ton of photos and additional news from the show floor so be sure to subscribe and check back soon. If there’s anything we missed that you found interesting, send a tweet to @MQDuclos and we’ll make him run across the expo to check it out ;-). Let’s get to it! We’ve broken the product announcements up by manufacturer in alphabetical order. Continue reading “NAB 2016 Preview”
Back in April, at NAB, Cooke teased us all with a silhouette of a new zoom lens – the first zoom from the manufacturer since the workhorse 18-100mm, or if you recall the 15-40mm CXX from 2004… Then at Cine Gear earlier this year Cooke gave us a few more hints including the fact that the lens will be anamorphic. Continue reading “Cooke Unveils Details of New Anamorphic Zoom”