There is a wonderful conundrum at the heart of todays relentless digitalisation of film making; that without the age old craft of milling glass it would all be for nought. That decade old lenses are sought after and coveted for anachronistic analogue traits is actually a comforting thing. Lenses made before digital cameras were dreamt of are gaining a near mythical reputation for characteristics cinematographers obsess over.
Cooke Optics possess a legendary status within the industry, whilst also being one of the greatest pioneers in lens and metadata technology. Central to that is the unassuming figure of Les Zellan, without whom the company probably wouldn’t exist. It was a great pleasure to talk to Les at Cinec 2018.
Cinec tv was sponsored by Sony, Zeiss, Cinemoves, DMG Lumière by ROSCO, BSC Expo and British Cinematographer.