a blog by Matthew Duclos
The Vega primes are the latest development by renowned cinema lens rehousing company, True Lens Services (TLS). We got together (virtually) with TLS Managing Director, Gavin Whitehurst and chatted about this new project. Enjoy!
Continue reading “New Vega Primes from TLS”
Famed lens rehousing organization, True Lens Service, based in the UK has had great success re-purposing vintage cinema lenses for a modern, demanding production environment. Their mechanical design and craftsmanship is second to none which makes for some very desirable combinations of old glass in new housings. In order to keep their lenses working diligently and to support their customers who live and work in the U.S, TLS has chosen Duclos Lenses to manage the repair and maintenance of their lenses to the highest standards.
Continue reading “TLS Partners with Duclos Lenses to Support U.S. Customers”
Famed British lens re-housing company True Lens Service based out of Leicester, UK has adapted one of the must lust-worthy lenses from the photography world, to the realm of cinematography.
Since the DSLR Revolution the Leica R primes have been the pinnacle of quality hybrid photo-cine prime lenses. Duclos Lenses has applied their Cine-Mod® to thousands of Leica R primes which brought a seamless focus gear, smooth click-less aperture, common 80mm front rings and Canon EF mount. But we had never tackled the PL mount solution. There were a couple of Chinese modifications that brought PL mounts and larger, heavier housings to the R series. But it wasn’t until Cinescope teamed up with TLS in the UK to bring a proper, robust cine-style housing to the Leica R primes. Continue reading “Leica R Primes Done Right by Cinescope and TLS.”
Back to the weekly grind. It’s Monday. Let’s get it started right with a bit of light reading. Continue reading “Weekly News Roundup #6”
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”
The gentlemen at True Lens Service (TLS) in the UK displayed a fully functional prototype of their 18mm Cooke Speed Panchro at IBC last year which garnered a respectable amount of interest. But what about the rest of the set? If you’re not familiar with the Cooke Speed Panchros, they’re basically the standard by which other prime lenses were measured between the 1930’s and 1950’s. George Eastman estimated that approximately 90 percent of 16mm films shot during that time in America were using Cooke Speed Panchros. There have been several revisions of the Panchros in Series II and III which can be a bit confusing, kind of like Cooke as a company in general. Surely you’ve seen “Taylor, Hobson” “Taylor, Taylor & Hobson” “Rank, Taylor & Hobson” or just plain “Cooke”. They’re all the same lineage with an extremely rich history in photographic optics and industrial revolution. Cooke was a true innovator in their infancy and continues to produce motion picture optics that push the boundaries of quality. Enough with the history… The Speed Panchros are relevant here because they are notorious for producing beautiful images that are simply not duplicated in post production. They have a character to them that defined the “Cooke Look” and gave thousands of films a warm romantic feel that cinematographers, directors, and colorists strive to reproduce with lackluster results (most of the time).
Continue reading “TLS Cooke Speed Panchro Re-housing Project”