Cooke Optics To Present First Look At Iconic Panchro Lens At IBC 2009

At IBC 2009, Cooke Optics will unveil the first working prototype of the highly anticipated Panchro By Cooke lens.
The PL mounted lens for 35mm film and digital production, which was announced at NAB 2009, is a modern redesign of the original Cooke Panchro lenses that were instrumental in establishing Hollywood as the centre of 20th century film production.
The Panchro is a small, lightweight and affordable lens, bringing the benefits of Cooke expertise and technology to all filmmakers, including independent filmmakers, film students and documentary makers.
It sacrifices one stop of light (T2.8 compared with T2.0 for Cooke S4) and is calibrated and colour-matched to existing Cooke lenses, making it a cost-effective choice when a faster lens is not crucial or when shooting in difficult situations such as crash scenes or VFX shots. The reduced size, weight and true focal length markings also make the Panchro ideal for 3D stereoscopic productions.
The Panchro lens will be demonstrated on Stand 11.D10, with first deliveries expected to be at the end of 2009.
In addition, Cooke will showcase a range of its high level camera lenses, including the industry favourite S4/i Prime lenses and the Cooke RED set of S4/i lenses. Cooke will also show the /i dataLink, a small box that mounts easily to any camera and records the focus, zoom, iris settings and other pertinent data of each take, allowing the metadata to be passed on to post. /i Technology enables VFX and DI artists to create more accurate, better-looking visual effects, and saves significant time in the post-production process. The growing number of companies that support /i Technology include Aaton, Arri, Avid, Cinematography Electronics CMotion, Dalsa, Mark Roberts Motion Control, The Pixel Farm, Preston Cinema Systems, RED, Service Vision and Silicon Imaging.
Cooke lenses have recently been used to shoot Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Angels and Demons, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Dragon Ball, Snowflake, Frost/Nixon, Milk and Before the Rains.
(KMcA/BMcc)