A pretty interesting patent. It appears Canon is working on the next generation of the technology introduced with the EOS 70D, i.e. Dual Pixel Auto-Focus. With a difference: this is Hexa Pixel Auto-Focus, and AF is obtained by plane phase difference of 16 sub-pixels. Not bad, eh? Might be the next game changing technology by Canon.

Moreover, and if I got the machine translated patent description right, this patent may be related to another Canon patent for a video camera featuring light-field technology. The patent also mentions AF microadjustment, but I am not sure I got it right: according to the patent literature, it seems to be a technology for automatic auto-focus microadjustment. As usual, given the hard to understand patent literature, any interpretative help is welcome.

• Patent Publication No. 2015-121778
  • Published 2015.7.2
  • Filing date 2013.11.21
• Canon patents
  • Image plane phase difference AF using 16 sub-pixels
  • Light field contrast AF that uses a
  • It does focus adjustment (Microadjustment) from the difference between the image plane phase difference AF and contrast AF

Canon filed a patent for what appears to be a Lytro-like technology. The patent refers to a “compound eye” lens, i.e. an optic element with several lenses, each having a different focal distance. Such a device is capable of refocusing images after being taken.

This is called Light-field photography, and Wikipedia has a definition for it:

A light field camera (also known as plenoptic camera) captures information about the intensity of light in a scene, and also captures information about the direction that the light rays are traveling in space. One type of light field camera uses an array of micro-lenses placed in front of an otherwise conventional image sensor; to sense intensity, color, and directional information.

Light-field photography is part of computational photography, and again we have a good definition:

Computational photography or computational imaging refers to digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes. Computational photography can improve the capabilities of a camera, or introduce features that were not possible at all with film based photography, or reduce the cost or reduce the size of camera elements. […] Light field cameras use novel optical elements to capture three dimensional scene information which can then be used to produce 3D images, enhanced of depth-of-field, and selective de-focusing (or “post focus”). Enhanced depth-of-field reduces the need for mechanical focusing systems

However, the patent refers to a video camera. This makes everything more interesting. I couldn’t find any reference to a sensor technology in the patent description. I wonder if this is going to feature a new sensor technology. I am not an expert in this domain, so any help is welcome.

• Patent Publication No. 2015-122677
  • Published 2015.7.2
  • Filing date 2013.12.25
• Canon patents
  • a plurality of lenses that focus processing is different
  • Sequentially performs the subject detection to the focal length is long order

The patent was spotted by Egami (translation).

Canon filed a patent for an EF 15-105mm f/2.8-5.6 lens.

• Patent Publication No. 2015-118141
  • Published 2015.6.25
  • Filing date 2013.12.17
• Example
  

  embodiment

  Example	Zoom ratio	Focal length	Fno.	Half angle	Image height	Overall length of the lens	BF
  1	4.12	24.75 52.09 101.92	3.60 4.81 5.83	41.16 22.56 11.98	21.64	146.25 166.83 195.25	38.99 58.34 73.70
  2	6.81	15.40 22.95 104.92	2.88 3.39 5.60	41.57 30.76 7.42	13.66	149.46 154.42 222.88	38.13 46.49 77.97

• Canon patents
  • Positive and negative positive and negative positive and negative positive 7-group zoom
  • Inner focus (fourth group)

This is a very interesting patent, a patent that hopefully points to something that will hit the market.

The patent refers to an adapter for a full-frame mirrorless camera. The adapter has a switch to change between EF and EF-S lenses.

• Patent Publication No. 2015-118208
  • Published 2015.6.25
  • Filing date 2013.12.18
• Canon patents
  • Flange back is shorter body
  • Flange back is long, a lens having the same image circle as the image pickup device body
  • Flange back is long, a lens with a smaller image circle than the image pickup device body
  • Mount adapter to change the diameter of the flare cut stop, depending on the image circle of mounting the lens

May a full-frame mirrorless camera by Canon finally be on its way?