Cooke Varotal 20-100mm, T3.1

[Damien Molineaux]

Anyone familiar with this lens?

I've been offered one for € 3'500 any recommendations?

Many thanks,
Damien

[PaulClements]

If it's in good nick then I'd say it wasn't a bad buy. I've seen them go cheaper than that, but I guess they might be of a poorer quality. The lense by all accounts is VERY good and was used as an industry standard for a number of years and eventually replaced by the 18-100mm. It's a bit on the large side for run and gun but ought to give good images all being well with the glass. The lens is a bit old, but that isn't too much of a concern.

However I can only talk from researched knowledge and haven't had the chance to use one yet, but I've earmarked this as a possible first cine lense to buy due to its low cost. It has cropped up a couple of times in posts here and over at dvxuser (In the red forums) so give it a search and see what you think from that. I know a few who have used it gave some feedback and none of it was negative.

[Hans von Sonntag]

Damien,

I shoot a couple of projects with this lens. It it beautiful, very different to Zeiss primes and as Paul said replaced in 80ies by the 18-100, which actually is an upgrade and hence very similar. Yes, it is quite heavy but for a 35mm Zoom almost the lightest, apart from the new light zooms from Zeiss, Angenieux and Cooke. Please be aware that this is an old, in most cases heavily used workhorse. That means that they are very often quite or even dramatically out of focus and not usable anymore. On the contrary to an ENG video zoom you can't adjust the backfocus easily on set. You have to overhaul the whole lens, which is an expensive thing, thus the low price. This said please check this offer, go to a rental house and put the lens on a collimator - you might have luck. In focus, and in a proper shape this lenses are a real bargain.

Hans

[chuck colburn]

Damien,

I shoot a couple of projects with this lens. It it beautiful, very different to Zeiss primes and as Paul said replaced in 80ies by the 18-100, which actually is an upgrade and hence very similar. Yes, it is quite heavy but for a 35mm Zoom almost the lightest, apart from the new light zooms from Zeiss, Angenieux and Cooke. Please be aware that this is an old, in most cases heavily used workhorse. That means that they are very often quite or even dramatically out of focus and not usable anymore. On the contrary to an ENG video zoom you can't adjust the backfocus easily on set. You have to overhaul the whole lens, which is an expensive thing, thus the low price. This said please check this offer, go to a rental house and put the lens on a collimator - you might have luck. In focus, and in a proper shape this lenses are a real bargain.

Hans

Hello Damien,

Hans is basically right in his statements, except for the part about back focus adjustment. The Cooke zooms have what they call a universal mount system. The whole mount system is held on by a threaded locking ring and uses factory shims that are easly replaceable. You do not have to overhaul the lens to set up flange focal distance. You should, as Hans said, have the lens collimated to what ever camera it is being used on. Also most optical and rental houses nowadays have thru the lens projectors. This would allow you to check the lens for focus shift and tracking errors.
If you are using the lens on a video camera you can get a pretty good feel for the lens by using a siemens star as a test target for the above tests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Siemens_star.svg

Chuck

[Stephen Webb]

Damien,

The other thng you might try out is asking the seller for the serial number and then asking Cooke for specific info on that lens. Obviously they can't tell you what condition it's in now but they can give you some info on its history.

[Stephen Williams]

Anyone familiar with this lens?

I've been offered one for € 3'500 any recommendations?

Many thanks,
Damien

Hi Damien,

If it's in good condition it's a beautiful lens. Stanley Kubrick owned one and used it on many films from 'The Shining' to 'Eyes wide Shut'.

I have one you can look at if you like.

Stephen

[Hans von Sonntag]

Always learning...

Thanks a lot Chuck! I will check this out (the cooke universal mount system, got a 20-100 currently in my office). Didn't know this and no lens technician told me about it. On the contrary. They told me its far way to expensive, not worth it.... reduser is a great resource.

Hans

Edit: Saw the two rings close to the mount (bigger one and smaller one). Unscrewed them, one shim in it (the bigger one). Smaller one (closer to the mount) does actually mount the PL-mount itself. Suppose you can change the mount type.

[chuck colburn]

Always learning...

Thanks a lot Chuck! I will check this out (the cooke universal mount system, got a 20-100 currently in my office). Didn't know this and no lens technician told me about it. On the contrary. They told me its far way to expensive, not worth it.... reduser is a great resource.

Hans

Edit: Saw the two rings close to the mount (bigger one and smaller one). Unscrewed them, one shim in it (the bigger one). Smaller one (closer to the mount) does actually mount the PL-mount itself. Suppose you can change the mount type.

Hi Hans,

There you go! Your on your way to becoming a certified Cine lens tech.
I don't know who your dealing with there, but I would say if they don't even know how to shim that lens you might be wise to look for a new lens tech.
Pay heed to Stephen for he is wise in the ways of all things COOKE !

Chuck

[Damien Molineaux]

Thank you for your input Chuck, Hans, Stephen, Stephen and Paul,
Great info. I think I'll hold off on this for the time being. I've found a S16 Zeiss 12-120 T2.4 which is apparently in great shape. It's more appropriate for my type of work, mostly doc. I've got a few Nikons I'll test for 4K and rent Cine Primes if necessary.

Cheers,
Damien

[M Olsen]

The 5-1 Cooke is a very versatile lens, I have used them extensively without problems.
In actual fact not withstanding price and possible size comparison the later 18-100 would, personally, be a better bet that the Red 18-85 . The extra mm on the long end is handy in the studio and with .75 of a meter close focus, near enough to macro in most applications.
But hey, horses for courses as they say !