Any experiences with Cooke S2/3 converted from STD mount?

[XiaoSu Han]

Hi, I am looking at a full set of Cooke S2/3's (18,25,32,40,50,75,152) in Arri Standard mount for about 2000 Euros/2500 USD, would that be worth it?

And does anyone have experiences with them in Arri Standard Mount, especially if used with an adapter for PL? Am I going to run into problems?

Also, do they have the same gears as the current line of Arri lenses or another pitch?

I think look wise that would be my dream set to go for!

Hope you guys have some experience with that and could share some of the information!

Thanks!

[Stephen Williams]

Hi,

Depending on who made the mount & how well they are collimated they could work very well. There will be no focus gears & focus scales are much smaller than we are used to today. Century & Van Diemen used to rebuild those lenses at $5-10,000 per lens.

Stephen

[Dan Hudgins]

With some early Cooke lenses you need to watch out since they were not desigined for use with full aperture like the baltars, they were faster and sharper in their smaller image circle.

That's a problem with S35 sensor camera models since many Russian and other movie lenses were optimised for Academy aperture size camera frames. If you are shooting 2:1 or 16:9 you get a little more width, but some wide angle lenses may be soft and or dark in the corners on full S35 or larger size sensors.

You can get Arri standard to PL mount adapters (from India) that go on with set screws (ouch). Focus can be an issue since the lens is kind of recessed.

Here is a link to a make offer auction,

http://cgi.ebay.com/PL-Mount-Adapter-for-Arri-STANDARD-BAYONET_W0QQitemZ250327275512QQcmdZViewItem