Cooke XVa

[AnselAdamsX]

Anyone here have a Cooke XVa in a shutter?
Were you able to mount it to a standard copal 3 lensboard or did you need to enlarge the hole?
Did you use the copal 3 shutter spacer?

[kgm]

I had one. It mounts in the Copal 3. The lens comes with its own aperture ring, which allows you to adjust for the focal length that you're using on the Cooke. It's easy to use. I used the Cooke in the same lensboard that I had used for my Nikkor M 450mm without having to enlarge the hole. I sold the Cooke two years ago, and now I don't remember if I had to use the spacer. I don't believe that I did.

The Cooke is a great lens. It only took a minute or so to configure the lens. The only difficulty, a minor one, was in focusing the lens when it was configured for the 25 1/2 inch focal length. I'm 6'2" with reasonably long arms, but I couldn't reach the front focusing knobs with the camera racked out that far. I would have to walk around to the front of the camera and make a rough focus, and leave enough room at the back to make a final focus adjustment. But it really wasn't a big deal. The image quality for all three configurations were excellent.

[AnselAdamsX]

I bought one but it won't mount in a standard copal 3 hole. I'll either have to harass the seller or get SK Grimes to make me something. I can't use the spacer either.

[vinny]

You could mail me the parts and I could set you up for a small fee.