Cook & Perkins: lens hoods and what else?

[nf3996]

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I’ve recently acquired a Cook & Perkins lens hood. I understand the hood is for use with the 50mm f/3.5 Elmar lens. It is somewhat like the Leitz VALOO in that the aperture tab on the lens fits into a slot inside the hood and the moveable fromt part of the hood allows the user to adjust the lens aperture. My version is marked in the old continental scale 3.5, 4.5, 6.3 etc, but I’ve also seen images of versions with the international scale 3.5, 4, 5.6 etc.

My hood also carries a ‘WA’ mark below the C&P logo. I’ve looked online at images of other C&P hoods, but I’ve not seen this WA mark on any of those. Is mine perhaps a wide-angle version for use on a 35mm f/3.5 Elmar lens (as in the photos)? The front hood section (which can be unscrewed from the main body) is about 12mm deep and the whole thing fits perfectly on my 35mm Elmar lens without any vignetting. Was there also a non-WA version with a deeper front hood for use on just the 50mm Elmar lens?

And who were Cook & Perkins? I’ve found an undated advert giving an address in Muswell Hill, London, N10 and stating that their ‘well-known accessories are obtainable through all good class dealers, and are distributed by Photo-Science Ltd’. A bit of online searching throws up links to a variety of Cook & Perkins lens hoods and an adapter to fit Contax rangefinder lenses onto Leica thread-mount bodies. The company appears to have been involved with Dallmeyer and with Cooke (with an ‘e’) on several lenses; and its name also appears in connection with the 50mm f/2 Taylor, Taylor, Hobson lens and 50mm f/2 National Optical Company lens, both used on Reid cameras. Were Cook & Perkins an important player in the field of optics and photographic accessories? What else did they make, and how long was the company active?

Alan

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[luigi bertolotti]

please delete my original post... a silly mistake...

Edited June 29, 2023 by luigi bertolotti

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[Anbaric]

This advert is from 1955 and appears again the same year,  both times next to an advert for Photo-Science Ltd (though the connection isn't stated here). You can search the RPS Journal here.

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Edit: Here is a little more information in a page about model cars and speedboats - racing 'tethered hydroplanes' was apparently at one time a popular hobby, and Ernest George Clark was a leading designer and competitor:

'Cook & Perkins, originally from Conway road, West Green and later Pembroke Road, Muswell Hill were internationally known for high quality optical engineering and photographic equipment as well as scientific instruments, was another of the local companies that Ernie worked for. This was most appropriate as he was a very keen photographer in his own right, creating the wonderful archive of negatives recording his career in model boating, which has been left to his son and daughters.'

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Anbaric

[willeica]

The company also made this. It was never a major player.

 

William 

 

Nebro Angle Head

c. 1947

Neville Brown & Co. Ltd

London

England

 

Cook & Perkins

 

 

 

http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/Images/M89.JPG

Pan and tilt tripod head with adjustment for portrait or landscape format. Marked with both the C&P and Nebro logos.

[Pyrogallol]

I have a Cooke & Perkins adaptor to fit internal bayonet (50mm) Contax lenses to Leica screw bodies. It is not the focussing version which is silly money but holds the lens at infinity setting, which is fine for most pictures.

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[pippy]

10 hours ago, Anbaric said:

...Edit: Here is a little more information in a page about model cars and speedboats - racing 'tethered hydroplanes' was apparently at one time a popular hobby, and Ernest George Clark was a leading designer and competitor...

I would like to say a huge Thank You, Anbaric, for the above link. Not so much for the C&P connection but rather that of E.G. Clark's connection to Sir Malcolm Campbell and the design for Bluebird K4. Fascinating stuff!

Philip.

Edited June 29, 2023 by pippy

[Anbaric]

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19 minutes ago, pippy said:

I would like to say a huge Thank You, Anbaric, for the above link. Not so much for the C&P connection but rather that of E.G. Clark's connection to Sir Malcolm Campbell and the design for Bluebird K4. Fascinating stuff!

Philip.

This is all new to me too - it's funny what sometimes comes out of a search for something entirely different, here a window into a subculture I never knew existed, and the completely unexpected link you mention. Plenty of material here for a quirky British film about Men in Sheds and the Water Speed Record!

[nf3996]

And thank you from me too.

On my original point, I'm now satisfied that this is indeed a wide-angle hood. I've tried it on a 50mm f/3.5 Elmar lens and the markings on the lens and the hood do not consistently match: if they line up at f/3.5, they are well off by f/18, and vice versa. On a 35mm f/3.5 Elmar lens everything matches perfectly throughout the aperture range. (The only downside is that the hood is an extremely tight fit and not at all easy to remove.)

Alan

[Giuliobigazzi]

Cook and Perkins used to provide a conversion service too, I believe for mostly ex military lenses. This is a sonnar in unknown mount with a custom milled c&p helical to accommodate it. 

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[DaddyArtur]

Cook & Perkins Ltd motorised the AGI MkV DIAL RECORDING CAMERA, (AGI were based in Purley Way, Croydon, now in Poole.)

Both Companies still in existence...