Canon Patent Application to combine Air Sphere and Flourine Coating

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Canon patent application US20180148603 discusses how to combine Air Sphere coating with Fluorine coating to further reduce optical artefacts like flare and ghosting. Both techniques are already used in Canon lenses (see video below), though I can’t say if they are used in combination.

From the patent literature.:

A low-refractive-index layer utilizing gaps between particles has a problem that oily matter penetrates and diffuses into voids between particles in the film. The present inventor has found that the contamination that has not been visually recognized at the time of adhesion of the contamination and low-molecular-weight oily matter generated by the adhesion of contaminants diffuse among particles in the low-refractive-index layer to decrease the refractive index, resulting in deterioration in the appearance to a degree that can be visually recognized.

Canon Patent Application for 800mm f/5.6 lens

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A Canon patent application (2018-087965) for what might be the future replacement for the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS lens.

The patent literature describes a lens concept where weight and size are reduced without affecting optical performance or causing increased chromatic aberrations.

Machine translated patent literature excerpt:

The method of using for a part of imaging optical system the diffracted-light faculty which has a diffraction working effect as a method of reducing lens weight is known correcting satisfactorily several aberration including the chromatic aberration of the imaging optical system. The imaging optical system which constituted the front lens group from ** material whose refractive index is higher than a low dispersing material with abnormal portion dispersibility, such as fluorite, and attained size and weight reduction of the whole system is known, using a diffraction working effect and reducing the lens number of sheets of the front lens group which was conventionally required for aberration compensation

There is a lot of buzz around Canon patent applications as of lately, and a lot of misunderstanding too. Bear in mind that a patent application does not mean a company will launch a product anytime soon. A patent application is a way companies have to secure their research and their intellectual property. In this sense, nothing here is a guarantee that the EF 800mm f/5.6L lens will be replaced in the close future.

Some Canon patent applications we think might get into production in the next few years are these:

Canon Patent Application for a 11-440mm f/2.1-4.1 Cinema Zoom lens

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Canon patent application (US 20180143412) for what looks like a 11-440mm f/2.1-4.1 Cinema Zoom lens.

From the patent literature:

Conventionally, four-unit zoom lenses are often used as zoom lenses for television cameras because it is relatively easy to achieve a wide angle of view, a high zoom ratio, and size and weight reduction. Such a four-unit zoom lens includes, in order from the object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power that does not move for zooming, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power that moves during zooming, a third lens unit for correcting variation in the image plane caused by zooming, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power for imaging.

In recent years, there have been proposed zoom lenses for television cameras including three, four, or more movable units as zooming units with functions as a variator and a compensator.

[…]

Thus, the present invention has an objective to provide a zoom lens including three or more movable units as its zooming units and simultaneously achieving a wide angle of view, a high zooming ratio, size and weight reduction, and particularly high performance in the focal length range from the wide-angle end to the zoom middle position. The present invention also aims to provide an image pickup apparatus having such a zoom lens.

To attain the above objective, a zoom lens according to the present invention includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power that does not move for zooming, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power that moves during zooming, a third lens unit having a negative refractive power that moves during zooming, a fourth lens unit having a negative refractive power that moves during zooming, and a relay lens unit having a positive refractive power and being located closest to the image side that does not move for zooming. The second lens unit moves to the image side from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end. When a focal length fx determined based on a focal length fw of the zoom lens at the wide-angle end and a zoom ratio Z is fx=fw×Z0.38, the zoom lens satisfies 0.05<L2min/L2w<0.98, where L2min is a minimum distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit in a zoom range from the wide-angle end to the focal length fx, and L2w is a distance between the second lens unit and the third lens unit at the wide-angle end.

Patent literature is a hard reading. If I got it wrong or if you have additional intel, please feel free to sound off in the comment section.

canon patent application

Canon Patent Application for a new mount type (but it doesn’t mean Canon’s FF MILC will feature it)

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EDIT: it appears to be an EF mount with high speed electrical connections, not a hybrid mount, not a new mount type.

Hi Lows Note spotted a Canon patent application (2018-084713) for a mount type that can manage different types of lenses. It appears to be neither and EF nor an EF-M mount (but we are not really sure about that).

From the patent literature (machine translated):

Conventionally, the serial communication (synchronous serial communication) of a clock synchronization system has been adopted as a communication method of a camera and an interchangeable lens. The following technical contents are disclosed in the Patent document 1. First, synchronous serial communication is performed with the first communication speed with which an interchangeable lens old type can also communicate. When the interchangeable lens with which it is equipped is distinguished from a new lens by the communication content, it changes to the synchronous serial communication in a more nearly high-speed second communication speed.

What we understand from the patent literature is that the mount type can handle two different types of lenses (old type vs. not old type). This has led some people to speculate about a hybrid mount type that has to come with Canon’s future full frame mirrorless camera.

As cool as this would be, there is absolutely nothing in the patent literature that makes us think Canon will feature a hybrid mount type that will fit all of their lenses (with different mounts), and possibly even more.

In the image on top you can see an element (1D) that has the purpose to detect newer lenses, i.e. lenses with a more recent AF technology and interface protocol. The two kind of lenses referenced in the patent literature and in the excerpt above, are most likely lenses with an older AF interface protocol, and newer lenses with faster AF speed and an updated interface protocol.

Canon patent application: wide-angle zoom lens for full-frame mirrorless camera

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Canon patent application 2018-77320A describes a 16-28mm f/2.8, wide-angle zoon lens for a full frame mirrorless camera.

  • Zoom ratio: 1.67
  • Focal length: 16.48 – 27.44mm
  • F number: 2.88
  • Half angle: 52.70 – 38.25
  • Image height: 21.64mm
  • Back focus: 12.33 – 10.00mm

We expect Canon to announce their full frame mirrorless camera within the next 8 to 12 months. For the latest about it see here.

More Canon patent applications are listed here.

[via Hi Lows Note]

Future Canon Mirrorless Cameras may have a new kind of flip screen, patent application suggests

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Japanese patent application 2018-54913 describes an articulating touchscreen that can rotate in various directions. Reducing the size of the mechanism seems to be one of the described claims.

Machine translated patent literature excerpt:

A display device having a display portion includes a first plate, a first shaft rotatably supporting the first plate, a second plate, a first plate provided on the first plate, A second shaft rotatably supporting the second plate rotatably in a direction substantially parallel to the first plate and the second plate, a third plate, a third plate provided on the second plate, and a third plate provided on the second plate and extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the first axis and the second axis And a third shaft rotatably journalled, wherein the second shaft is provided at one end portion of the first plate and substantially at the center portion of the second plate, and the second plate is formed of a first And the second shaft is pivotally supported by the second shaft at a substantially central portion of the display portion in a direction substantially parallel to the third axis in a state where the plate, the second plate, and the third plate are overlapped with each other.

As you can already see from the images, the display can be articulated to the side (on a vertical axis) and from the bottom of the camera (horizontal axis).