LES Zellan, chairman of the board for Cooke Optics and North American representative for the U.K. lens manufacturer (through his distribution company ZGC), says ‘at the end of the day the only two things that will really influence the image are the choice of film stock and the lens.’

Obviously, Zellan’s preferred lens is the Cooke S4 series, the newest line of cinematographers’ tools out of Cooke Optics, a company with a long history in the film business.

‘The first Cooke lenses were made in 1893,’ Zellan says. ‘Cooke has been serving the industry since the beginning. The early talking motion pictures were probably all exclusively shot on Cooke lenses.’

Zellan goes on to explain what Cooke Optics’ century of experience has done for its product lines. According to Zellan, the company benefited from a hundred years of ‘listening carefully to cinematographers.’

‘There are a lot of things that go into the S4s,’ he says. ‘They provide superior optical performance. They provide a color balance that is very pleasing to cinematographers. Beyond that, they’re very reliable, sturdy lenses.

‘We’ve done things that haven’t been done in prime lenses for the industry. For instance, instead of using a helical thread [one barrel over the other barrel, with the focussing done by threads between the two barrels], we built one with a cam system in it. So we’re no longer tied to the diameter because we can manipulate the cam,’ Zellan explains.

Further, he says the Cooke S4s ‘also handle flare and glare very well. So you can take a backlit scene and the lenses aren’t going to fall apart when a lot of backlight hits the lens. Also, it has extremely good resolving power in shadows. Therefore, in the shadow areas there are details.’

Cooke has also taken the time to ‘listen to the warehouses,’ and, as Zellan says, ‘Cooke lenses can be serviced and turned around in about an hour per lens.’

The S4 line has been recognized in the industry with numerous awards, the most impressive being an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement in 1999.

Three years old, the S4 line has a way to go before any new lines are introduced. Says Zellan: ‘We’re working to expand the line. Originally there were only six lenses in the S4 line. And then eight, and in about a month, there will be 10 in the series. And I suspect that early next year – before the S4 series is done – there will be somewhere between 12 and 15 lenses. It’s still growing and being expanded.’

Most Cooke lenses ‘get exported,’ and Zellan confirms Canadian cinematographers are good customers.

‘I can tell by the number of sets we deliver to Canada that they are very popular,’ he says.

-www.cookeoptics.com

-www.zgc.com