Cooke Speed Panchro Lens Colour Temperatures
Colour temperature measurements of each lens in our TLS Cooke Speed Panchro set.
Ben Bateman
Updated 10 Oct 2025
·
2 min read
Vintage series 2 and 3 Cooke Speed Panchro lenses use thoriated glass elements that yellow over time. This can cause colour temperature inconsistencies across a set of lenses as the yellowing occurs at different rates and to different extents.
To measure the colour temperature differences in our set of TLS rehoused S2/S3 Cooke Speed Panchros, we used our lens projector. First we measured the colour temperature of the projector bulb with a spectrometer. Each lens was then places on the prjector, and we measured the colour temperature of the light transmitted through the lens.
Here are the results.
Focal Length | Measured Temp | Baseline Temp | Difference |
18mm S3 | 4790K | 5270K | 480K warmer |
25mm S3 | 5230K | 5270K | 40K warmer |
32mm S2 | 4740K | 5270K | 530K warmer |
40mm S2 | 5390K | 5270K | 120K cooler |
50mm S2 | 5300K | 5270K | 30K cooler |
75mm S2 | 5140K | 5270K | 130K warmer |