Cooke Optics Is Now Offering ‘Vintage’ Looks with Uncoated Glass

Love that Cooke look? Now Cooke Optics is offering a few more "vintage" variations on its characteristic optical style.

Accommodating the current trend toward using vintage glass to take some of the modern crispness out of footage captured by digital camera systems, the entire Cooke S4/i series is now offered with uncoated front elements.

Why would you want front glass without fancy modern coatings? Cooke says the look is characterized by "lower contrast, milkier shadows, flares, streaks and other aberrations."

The Cooke S4/i series comes in 18 focal lengths ranging from 12mm to 300mm, and the uncoated elements are available for all of them. Trained lens technicians can even swap the front elements on existing lenses, a process that may require the lenses ot be re-shimmed or have their focus scales shifted to account for tiny differences, the company said. 

“This is a practical and affordable way of giving cinematographers two choices for each S4/i lens, depending on their storytelling choices,” said Les Zellan, chairman and owner of Cooke Optics, in a prepared statement.

But there are some caveats. For one, you lose about 10 percent of the light due to the lack of coating, meaning the maximum T-stop of a lens without the coated front is around T2.2 rather than T2, Cooke said. Also, the front element may discolor or stain over time. 

Cooke's miniS4/i elements are already "popular" in uncoated versions, the company said in a statement.