Cooke Panchro 65/i Large-Format Lenses – Shipping Starts November 2025

Lens News

by Johnnie BehiriOctober 2^nd, 2025

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Lens manufacturer Cooke has officially launched the Panchro 65/i series for 65mm and large-format cinematography. The six-lens lineup brings the Panchro aesthetic to larger image circles with /i Technology integration. Shipping begins in November 2025.

Cooke has been manufacturing cinema lenses for over 100 years. The company developed /i Technology, the protocol for capturing and passing lens metadata to post-production teams.

Back when we first covered the Panchro 65/i announcement, Cooke hadn’t disclosed much information about pricing or availability. Now, the company has confirmed full specifications and pricing details for the series.

The Panchro 65/i marks Cooke’s return to large-format lens design, following the Double Speed Panchros and Duopanchros developed for VistaVision and 65mm film in the early 1950s. The new series is designed for compatibility with cameras like the ARRI ALEXA 65 and 265, as well as the FUJIFILM ETERNA 55.

The “Cooke Look”

The “Cooke Look” is defined by several distinct characteristics. While often associated with softness, Cooke lenses are among the sharpest cinema lenses available, capable of resolving up to 200 line pairs per millimeter – far beyond the 40 line pairs per mm required for 4K cameras.

Key elements include the focus characteristics: at minimum focus distance, Cooke lenses produce an anamorphic-like distortion where the image center magnifies and tapers toward the edges, creating a circular distortion effect. This has been part of the Cooke aesthetic since the 1920s and produces an almost dream-like quality in close-ups, with subjects appearing to have a halo effect.

Color rendition is another defining feature. When white-balanced against a white reference on a vector scope, Cooke lenses exhibit a yellow bias. This warm palette, associated with Golden Age and 1970s cinematography, remains consistent across the lens range through color-matching.

Flare characteristics are subtle and low-contrast, blending colors into the scene rather than creating harsh, defined flares typical of other manufacturers.

Cooke Panchro 65/i – Technical Specifications

The series includes six focal lengths:

• 30mm T2.8
• 40mm T2.8
• 55mm T2.5
• 75mm T2.5
• 100mm T2.5
• 152mm T2.9 (available Spring 2026)

These lenses are relatively fast, especially considering they are designed for large-format sensors. When paired with the ARRI Alexa 65, they offer an angle of view ranging from 20.2° to 84.1°. Weight varies between 1.8 and 2.3kg. All lenses stop down to T22.

To our knowledge, next to the Panchro 65, the Leitz THALIA 65 lenses are the only ones to feature /i Technology for metadata capture and workflow integration in large format lenses.

Build and compatibility

The Panchro 65/i lenses come with LPL mounts only. They feature dual focus scales (Imperial and Metric), as well as a scratch-resistant coating for durability in challenging shooting environments. Cooke has color-matched the Panchro 65/i series internally and with existing Panchro/i Classic and SP3 lenses, allowing seamless integration when mixing focal lengths or lens series in production.

Price and availability

Each lens is priced at £16,000 / €19,200 / $23,000. Shipping for the Panchro 65/i will begin in November 2025, with the 152mm focal length available in Spring 2026.

For additional information, head to the Cooke website here.

Would you consider selling a kidney in order to be able to afford such a lens? If so, please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.