NEWS 2013 - Cine Gear Expo

CINE GEAR EXPO
NEWS 2013
Technical Lifetime
aChievement
CINE GEAR EXPO
NEWS 2013
The Cine Gear Expo 2013 Technical Lifetime
ACHievement Award will be presented to Cooke
Optics Limited and Mr. Les Zellan, in recognition of
THe significant contributions Cooke has made to
advancing the art and craft of film making.
Timeline of Cooke Cine Lens History
The recent surge of interest in Cooke Series II and III and
other classic lenses suggested the time was right for this article
by Barbara Lowry.
There is a short list of prolific Cooke optical designers who
were responsible for major innovations that helped define the
look of motion pictures for the past 118 years.
William and Thomas Smithies Taylor were mechanical and
optical geniues. They opened their first workshop while still in
school. In 1885, they moved to Slate Street in Leicester, England
to set up a business as “Manufacturers of Optical Instruments.” In
1887,William Hobson joined them as sales manager. The firm was
named Taylor, Taylor & Hobson. They built the first Cooke lens in
1894, after T. Cooke & Sons of York (makers of telescopes, but not
interested in photography) offered Taylor, Taylor & Hobson the
manufacturing rights to a Triplett photographic lens that solved
the problem of edge softness. The 3-section lens was designed
by Dennis Taylor (not a relative). William Taylor invented, among
other things, the standardized screw thread for photographic
lenses (1892), the dimpled golf ball (1905), engraving machines,
and many devices for making lenses at tolerances that can still
compete with contemporary equipment. William Taylor hired
optical designer Arthur Warmisham 1912.
Warmisham filed 70 optical patents, from 1922 through the
late 1930s—more than any other person or company. His designs
included the Cooke Varo, a 1931 zoom lens for cinematography.
Warmisham hired Horace W. Lee as an optical designer
shortly after—in 1913. Rudolf Kingslake, head of the Optical
Design Department of Eastman Kodak in 1937, among other
distinctions, said, “Horace Lee was one of England’s foremost
and most original lens designers.” Lee was responsible for the
first f/2.0 lens, the subsequent Cooke Speed Panchro design, and
the telecentric (reverse telephoto) lens design for use on 3-strip
Technicolor cameras.
In 1948, Warmisham hired Gordon Cook, who was
responsible for many Cooke zoom lenses. His 1971 Cooke Varotal
20-100mm was innovative and breathtaking: it did not breathe at
all. This was a first. The Varotal was also the first zoom lens for
35mm cinematography with a sealed and fixed front element. It
had excellent performance and was easy to service—innovations
incorporated in all Cooke zooms ever since. In 1988, the Academy
honored him with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for his lifetime
contributions to the motion picture industry, the first time this
award went to someone outside the United States.
In 1998, Les Zellan, then U.S. distributor of Cooke lenses,
bought the Cooke lens division of Taylor-Hobson. The existing
factory where Cooke lenses had been made was so run down that
seagull feathers would float down through holes in the roof. Les
built a new 21,000 sq. ft. factory about 4 miles away, and moved
all the equipment, machines, and existing personnel, including
Mark Craig Gerchman, who became chief optical designer. The
Cooke brand continued under a new company name: Cooke
Optics Limited.
Les Zellan is chairman of Cooke Optics Limited, maker of
Cooke lenses, the legendary lens brand that captured virtually all
films shot in Hollywood during the first half of the 20th century.
Zellan is a 1973 graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University with a
master’s degree in Technical Theatre.
After graduation, Zellan sold, designed and installed
theatrical stage lighting systems for Berkey Colortran and then
became sales director at a film equipment rental company in New
York City. That association led him to an emerging product, the
Aaton 16mm camera, and Zellan’s company, Zellan Enterprises
Ltd., was formed in New York City in 1979 to promote and sell
the product for Aaton in the U.S. as exclusive importer and
distributor. He added Cooke lenses as well as Canon and OpTex
to his distributorship shortly thereafter.
In 1998, Zellan purchased the Cooke lens division from
Taylor-Hobson of Leicester, England, naming the new company,
Cooke Optics Limited, and moved it to a new facility. A year later,
his new design team won 1999 Science and Technical Academy
Awards, 1999 Primetime Emmy Awards and a CINEC award
(Munich, Germany) for the optical and mechanical design of the
company’s new Cooke S4 Prime lenses for 35mm/Super35mm
cinematography.
On February 9, 2013, Zellan accepted a Science and
Technology Academy Award of Merit (Oscar statue) on behalf
of Cooke Optics Limited “for continuing innovation in the design,
development and manufacture of advanced camera lenses that
have helped define the look of motion pictures over the last
century.”
He is an associate member of the American Society of
Cinematographers and lectures at colleges on the art of lens
manufacture. John Fauer will present the Award to Cooke Optics
Limited and Mr. Les Zellan.
6
7