Cooke s5/i Primes Launched

One of the biggest announcements to come out of IBC this year was from Cooke Optics, who have launched their new range of prime lenses. The Cooke s5/i series (the “i” stand for “intelligent”, Cooke’s data interface technology) is, unsurprisingly, the successor to the excellent Cooke s4 series. The new lenses are faster (T1.4) and have an illuminated focus ring that allow the scales to be read under low light conditions. Interestingly they have a 7-leaf iris as opposed to their predecessors 8 leave

For those wondering how this might effect shooting with a Red then at the moment these seem an excellent fit with the Red One. However, of note is the fact that they only cover up to a 30mm diameter plane (apparently throughout the range) which means they are slightly short of the full 5K sensor area on the new s35 model Epics and Scarlets (and well short of the FF35 sensor area). It will be possible to still shoot 4K on the new s35 Red cameras, but if you want to use the full real estate of the new technology then you’ll be looking at either Master Primes or Red’s own Prime lenses.

Cooke have also been working on a new Panchro lens, designed to be smaller and lighter then the s4′s (and presumably the s5′s) but with the same optical quality and resolution. They will only be T2.8, but the payoff is they will be cheaper.