IBC 2018: Cooke Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus Lenses with Les Zellan

At IBC 2018 we stopped by the Cooke Optics stand to chat with Cooke Optics Chairman Les Zellan about their new Anamorphic/i Full-Frame Plus range and their latest 65mm Macro and 21mm Panchro lenses.

The first lens in the new Anamorphic/i Full-Frame Plus lineup is the 50mm T2.3 Anamorphic FF+ lens, which we saw demoed at the Cooke stand at IBC 2018 in Amsterdam. The 50mm will be the first of many new high-end anamorphic range designed to fulfil the most stringent demands of DoPs shooting scope with the latest generation large format cameras such as the RED Monstro 8K and Sony VENICE.

Adding more flare to their already acclaimed Cooke Anamorphic/i lens family, the new Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus range is set to bring the beloved anamorphic characteristics and aesthetic including flare and oval bokeh to top-echelon large format productions.

The new Anamorphic/i Full-Frame Plus range, will feature a T2.3 maximum aperture opening, and will cover a range starting from 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm and 180mm lenses. The 50mm will be the first in production, with the rest following over the next 12 months.

The image circle will cover the full 24 x 36mm full-frame (and beyond, hence the “plus” in the name) 35mm sensors, with a unique 1.8x squeeze, unlike more common 2x or 1.3x squeeze existing Anamorphics. Like all Cooke lenses, the Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus range will include /i Technology that collects detailed lens data for VFX and post-production teams.

In part 2 of my interview with Les, who has been in the business of making high-end lenses for some time now and has seen the industry shift from film to digital, from 2K to 4K, 6K and beyond and more recently from S35 to Full-Frame, we discuss the current state of large format cinematography and where do we go from here? What about S35? Resolutions wars, is this still happening? Find out in my interview with Cooke’s Les Zellan below.

What do you guys think about Large Format/FF cinematography? Are you on board, or is this just a fad that will go away? I’d interested to know what you think down in the comments below.

Huge thanks to Les and all the Cooke crew at IBC for taking the time out of their busy schedule let us film this interview at their busy stand.

For more information on the new Cooke Anamorphic/i Full-Frame Plus range, Panchro Classic lenses and everything Cooke related, head over to their website here.

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