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25mm T2.2 Cooke Speed Panchro Series II (S2) – Serial 592911 – In Production from 1953 (U.S. Patent 2502509)
The aptly named lens designer Gordon Cook began working at Taylor-Hobson in 1948 and embarked on redesigning the Speed Panchro line. In 1953 the 25mm T2.2 was released and by 1958 a complete set of the Series II was available from 25mm to 100mm with stops from T2.2 to T2.8.
The Series II lenses shared much of the DNA of the original Panchro lineage but there was more inclusion of rare-earth glasses and new coating techniques to minimise reflections and increase contrast/transmission performance. Thorium dioxide was added to a silica mixture and helped create glass with high refraction and low dispersion which was massively beneficial in removing chromatic aberration.
The S2s also marked a transition point from hand-calculations for the optical design of each lens, which could take as long as a year to perfect, to computer aided calculations – albeit on massive computers – which only took days to complete. These lenses also covered the full negative area of 18.63mm x 24.89mm, which was very close to what would become known as Super35.
Gordon Cook would go onto create groundbreaking Zoom lenses for Cooke and in 1989 was awarded the prestigious Gordon E. Sawyer award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was the sixth recipient to receive the honour and the first non-US citizen.
“Panchro” has become synonymous with Cooke – read more about the history of this iconic look on our blog. Nowadays the Panchro /i Classic FF and S35 lenses offer the creation of characterful images with all the benefits of modern lens mechanics.
This lens is on display in our London showroom and was photographed on the Cooke Macro/i FF 150mm lens.
