Cooke

Cooke Optics Limited is a British maker of cinema lenses based in Thurmaston, Leicester, where each lens is assembled by hand. The Cooke name dates to 1893, when H. Dennis Taylor, optical manager of the York telescope maker T. Cooke & Sons, patented the Cooke Triplet. The Leicester firm Taylor, Taylor & Hobson, founded in 1886, made lenses under the Cooke brand. The present company was formed in 1998 through a management buyout of Taylor Hobson's optical division.

Caledonia Investments plc acquired a majority stake in 2018 and remains the controlling shareholder. Taylor Hobson, the former parent, now makes metrology instruments as a subsidiary of Ametek.

Cooke Speed Panchro primes were used on Hollywood productions from the 1920s to the 1960s, and modified Speed Panchros served the three-strip Technicolor process until the early 1950s. Gordon H. Cook's Varotal 20–100mm T3.1 zoom of 1971 introduced the design concept behind all later Cooke zooms. In 2013 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Cooke an Award of Merit.