Speed Panchro Redux

Cooke Speed Panchro lenses have always been coveted, for reasons partly described in FDTimes’ “Cooke Look Back,” pages 30-35.

It was therefore a great surprise when FDTimes subscriber and supporter Ian Turtill steered me to the True Lens Services Booth in Hall 11 at IBC. There, sitting like a Phoenix on the counter, was a prototype Cooke Speed Panchro lens conversation, called, aptly, the TLS SP Lens Conversion. Check it out–one of the hits of the show.

Send in your old, your tired, your poor vintage Panchros. Colin Sanders and Keith Truslove will restore and upgrade your old classics. The conversions have a variable pitch cam and follower focus movement, which spreads the focus scale nicely. The barrels turn smoothly. There’s a stainless steel PL mount. Focus and iris gears have common positions throughout the series, and the fronts are 110 mm diameter.

Conversions are for the 18, 25, 32, 40, 50, 75 and 100 mm Speed Panchros. Colin estimates there are thousands of the original lenses worldwide, and I guess that means True Lens Services may try to have lenses available in stock for those few miserable souls who do not own originals to send in for upgrades.

Keith, many readers may remember, worked at Cooke for many years. True Lens Services is in Leicester, about 12 miles from the Cooke factory. www.truelens.co.uk

Keith Truslove, left. Colin Sanders, right

 

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