Need help with decision - Cooke lens

[liza]

I need help with this lens. It´s in an auction next week and I can´t decide to bid or not. What would you accept as a reasonable price?

Object: Cooke Portrait Anastigmat 15½ inch, serie VIa f/5.6 with variable soft focus in 5 steps. Near mint condition.

Eva

 

[rbarker]

I've never used one, Eva, but the old Cookes seem to have a strong following. This one looks pretty clean, as well. As to price, I'd check old auctions on eBay, and take a look to see if Lens & Repro ( Dead Link Removed ) might have one. Their prices are often a good measure of the high end of the scale.

 

[removed account4]

eva

there is also one on FEEbay - the auction ends in a few days ...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=30076&item=7518051165&rd=1&ssPageName=WD4V

if your auction ends later, you could use this as a guide price ...

this guy also has a vintage advertisment on his selling page if you are interested in the company info / specs on the lens ...

looks like a beautiful lens

-john

 

[jd callow]

Wow, is that a pretty lens!

 

[Frank Petronio]

Maybe $800? Just guessing.

The new Cookes are pretty expensive...

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Looks like it's in nice shape, and variable soft focus lenses are highly desirable. No idea what the price would be. These things can vary quite widely, and at auction much depends on whether the Asian collectors get involved.

So does all this classic photo gear get stored in vaults in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Shanghai, along with the archtop guitars, or are there some great East Asian photographers using vintage equipment that we just don't hear about in the West (I know there are great East Asian photographers who don't particularly use vintage equipment)?

 

[JG Motamedi]

No idea as to the value, I would guess maybe $600, possibly more. I do know that these lenses are really quite nice to use. Some years back, when trying to choose a soft focus lens I rented a 13" knuckler from Lens and Repro and was very pleased with its variable sharpness. I ended up buying another sort of lens altogether, but would certainly jump at this lens if the price was good.

David's question is a good one...

 

[Bob F.]

A little bit of info here: http://www.f32.net/Services/Equipment/Lenses/cooke.html - but I do not believe the price suggestion there - that is one booooootiful looking lens and even just to put on the shelf to look at, it's gotta be worth more than $200...

Bob.

 

[Charles Webb]

I am a great fan of Pinkham Smith soft focus lenses, and I believe from the one I owned for many years that it was the best ever made, it was by Cook. This one just might be a great lens. I wouldn't hesiatate to to bid, but I'll bet it will go fairley high.

I had thought about bidding on the one on ebay, but five to eight hundred just isn't in my lens budget just now. It could go for less, but I bet some sniper already has his sights set to steal it in the last few seconds. If it is like other Cook lenses I have used, it will be a dandy!