Color Matched Across Full Range of Cooke Lenses
Patricia Greene January 25 2012 12:47:43 PM
All of the Cooke lenses are color matched and interchangeable. This means the Panchro by Cooke, S4/i Primes, 5/i Primes, CXX 15-40 mm T2 S4/i Zoom, 18-100 mm T3.0 and 25-250 mm T3.7 and the SK4 16 mm lenses can be mixed on a shoot with full confidence that the images will match. Consistently maintaining the color balance across the full range means all Cooke lenses give a seamless look when shots are mixed in production. This painstaking process is part of the reason why Cooke lenses take time and skill to construct.According to Alfonso Para's cinematographic evaluation: "These lenses do not only show a precise reproduction of the color series, but also contribute clearly to a nice reproduction of skin tones."
Cooke prides itself on creating lenses that match as closely as possible. The Panchro/i lenses are no exception. Using a Panchro is like using S4s that open up to a T2.8. DP Timur Civan explained, "They match so closely, that my friend and fellow DP Ryan Patrick O'Hara, when comparing the iPachros to the S4's, found that they matched so well that the differences were akin to the difference between different sets of S4's.... not a completely different product line. That says a lot when talking about the quality of the design, and the stance behind these lenses."
Last month Indent Studios organized a lens test with RED Pro Primes, Illumina S35, Cooke Panchros, UniQoptics Signature Series, Schneider Cine-Xenars, Leica R (Duclos Mod) and Zeiss Compact Primes (V2). They found the Panchro/i lenses were the overall favorite, "Overall this is a very well color matched set of lenses." and in their conclusion Indent Studios judged: "The general consensus on the day of the test was that the Cooke Panchro /i's were the best all around lens package. They were the most uniform in consistency, had the best skin tone reproduction, covered 5k from 18mm and longer, the focus marks were accurate, and the build quality was very solid."
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