Cooke Optics

Cooke Optics is the British cinema-lens maker based in Leicester. The Cooke name dates to 1893, when H. Dennis Taylor of T. Cooke and Sons of York patented the Cooke Triplet, manufactured from 1894 by Taylor, Taylor and Hobson under license. The modern company was formed in 1998 from a buy-out of Taylor-Hobson's optical division and continues to design and hand-assemble cinema lenses prized for their distinctive rendering.

Product families

• S8/i and S7/i Full Frame Plus (prime lenses)
• Panchro/i Classic (vintage-look primes)
• Anamorphic/i (anamorphic lenses)
• SP3 (mirrorless stills lenses)

Milestones

• 1893H. Dennis Taylor patents the Cooke Triplet lens design
• 1894Taylor, Taylor and Hobson of Leicester builds the first Cooke photographic lens
• 1921Cooke lenses shoot early Hollywood features including The Sheik
• 1998Cooke Optics is formed from the buy-out of Taylor-Hobson's optical division
• 2018Caledonia Investments acquires the company