Cooke Optics Ltd is located in the UK.

Contact: lenses@cookeoptics.com for further information.

...Quick Contact details...
Tel. +44 (0)116 264 0700
Fax. +44 (0)116 264 0707

www.cookeoptics.com

With Scott and Shackleton at the South Pole,
At the top of Mount Everest and in the deepest ocean in the world,
At Royal weddings and major ceremonial events,
On ornithological and scientific expeditions,
In the service of NATO on the ground, and
At maximum heights in the atmosphere,
In most of the world's television networks, and On major film locations,

Cooke lenses stunningly documented the most historic events of the 20th century.

Spotlight on the Cooke Portrait PS945 Soft Focus Lens 229mm, f/4.5 for 4x5 Large Format Photography

This lens is a modern reproduction of the vintage Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality Series IV Soft Focus Lens used by early 20th century master impressionist photographers. Cooke has reproduced the unique performance of these hand aspherised lenses using modern design techniques to duplicate the unique, soft yet high-resolution performance exactly. Use the Cooke PS945 to capture portraits, fashion, landscapes, weddings and for artistic experimentation.

Quality of Diffusion

The quality of diffusion is midway between the softness of the first Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromat lenses made in the late 1890s and a conventional sharp lens. It performs just like the rare and revered, original Pinkham & Smith Visual Quality Series IV lenses that were produced in Boston, Massachusetts in the early part of the 20th century.

Degree of Diffusion

The selection of aperture controls the degree of diffusion. Your choice of subject, lighting conditions and final processing will influence the final print results, but in general you will achieve the following effect: At f/11, the lens performs like a conventional sharp lens but without the unattractive, out-of-focus background that would be imaged by most conventional lenses. At f/8, the lens will produce a sharp image but absent an unpleasant hard edge. At f/5.6, the image appears more velvety but in focus with a subtle roundness of the edges. At f/4.5, the lighter areas appear to generate their own luminous glow without losing focus, or losing the contrast against the darker areas.

The Lens is Supplied with the Following:

• Cooke Portrait PS945 lens in Copal #3 shutter
• Sturdy black lacquered storage box suitable for storing the lens alone or mounted on a lens board up to 5 inches square.
• A CD containing a short primer authored by Jay Allen entitled, "How to Use a Soft Focus Lens, Featuring the Cooke Portrait PS945 Lens," technical specifications, historical data about Pinkham & Smith lenses and the Cooke brand of lenses, and sample photos taken by contemporary photographers using the Cooke Portrait PS945 lens.

The Cooke PS945 Soft Focus Lens

Soft Focus Lenses versus Diffusion Filters

Using a soft focus lens is not the same as using a diffusion filter on a conventional lens, nor is it the same as stopping down a conventional lens. A diffusion filter causes a random scattering of the rays at all points across the aperture. The image obtained with a soft-focus lens retains all of the subject detail over a wider depth of field than with a conventional lens set to the same aperture, but the emphasis on the fine detail or the bolder elements of the image can be distributed as the photographer wishes. The original Pinkham & Smith lenses achieve their distinctive soft focus in a manner different from other lenses. Using the traditional glass available at the time, craftsmen hand-corrected multiple surfaces of the lenses to achieve their unique soft focus look. The introduction of aspherical surfaces gave Pinkham & Smith lenses a higher-order spherical aberration that results (when the lens was used fully open) in an image with both very high resolution and a self-luminescent quality. Cooke has reproduced the unique performance of these hand aspherized lenses using modern design techniques that duplicate this unique soft yet high-resolution performance exactly.

More information on the PS945 is available on the Cooke Optics web site.

Contact Details:

Cooke Optics Ltd.
Cooke Close
Thurmaston
Leicester
LE4 8PT United Kingdom