Canon Patent: Drone Camera Pan/tilt Assembly And Mount

Canon Patent

Here is a somewhat different Canon patent application. A drone camera pan/tilt assembly.

Canon patent application 2022-046746 discusses methods and technology for a drone camera assembly.

[Problem] To provide an imaging device which can be miniaturized.

A camera 100 includes a tilt unit 40 having a lens unit 50, a base unit 20, a pan unit 40 erected from the base unit 20 and rotatably supporting the tilt unit 40, and a tilt drive unit 350 for rotationally driving the tilt unit 30. The tilt drive unit 350 has a drive unit 351 for transmitting a drive force, and the tilt drive unit 350 is disposed on the pan chassis 311 of the pan unit 30 so that the drive unit 351 is in pressure contact with the lens unit 50.

[…]

In particular, in order to finely control the rotation in the tilt direction, it is necessary to greatly reduce the rotation of the motor, so that a plurality of pulleys and timing belts are required, and the tilt drive mechanism becomes large. As a result, the image pickup device consisting of the camera and the rotation drive mechanism also becomes large, and the degree of freedom of mounting on the handlebar of the drone or bicycle may be reduced, and in particular, the weight of the image pickup device may exceed the maximum load capacity in the drone. ..
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device, an image pickup device, and a mobile body that can be miniaturized.

More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

[via CN]

Canon Patent: Catadioptric Optical System With Image Stabilisation And Inner Focus

Canon Patent

A new Canon patent application. It’s for a rather complex catadioptric optical system with inner focusing and image stabilisation.

Canon patent application 2022-45962A discusses optical formulas for a catadioptric lens.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a catadioptric reflection optical system capable of realizing good imaging performance with a compact configuration.

As an imaging optical system used in an imaging device, the total length of the lens (distance from the lens surface on the object side to the image surface) is short, the size is small (compact), and the optical performance is high at the time of focusing and vibration isolation. It has been demanded.
According to the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to realize a catadioptric system having a relatively large aperture and high optical performance while shortening the overall lens length. However, in the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1, the focal length of the entire catadioptric system and the objective lens group is large, and the correction of chromatic aberration and the like is insufficient, so that compact and good imaging performance is realized. I can’t.
Therefore, the present invention provides a catadioptric system capable of achieving good imaging performance in a compact configuration and an image pickup apparatus having the same.

Example 1

  • Focal length: 1200mm
  • F value: 8.02
  • Half angle of view: 1.03
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 380.02
  • Back focus: 100.01

Example 2

  • Focal length: 1200mm
  • F value: 11.00
  • Half angle of view: 1.03
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 286.02
  • Back focus: 44.99

Example 3

  • Focal length: 800mm
  • F value: 5.60
  • Half angle of view: 1.55
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 340.01
  • Back focus: 49.58

As always, this Canon patent was spotted by asobinet. More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

Canon Patent: RF 130mm f/2 Lens For The EOS R System

Canon Patent

Here is a new Canon patent. A RF 130mm f/2 lens for the EOS R full frame mirrorless system.

Canon patent application 2022-043436 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for a RF 100mm f/2 lens.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical system which is compact and has various aberrations such as chromatic aberration satisfactorily corrected.

Example 1

  • Focal length: 130.77
  • F value: 2.06
  • Half angle of view: 9.39
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 132.51
  • Back focus: 25.26

As always, this Canon patent was spotted by asobinet. More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

Canon Patent: Shutter Technology To Minimize Vibrations

Canon Patent

A new Canon patent, an interesting one. How to reduce the vibrations induced by shutter movement?

Canon patent application 2022-039332 (Japan) discusses technologies to reduce “shutter shock”, i.e. mechanical vibrations induced by the shutter movement.

[Problem] To provide an imaging apparatus in which vibration generated by a shutter hardly propagates to another portion and a shutter is highly accurately positioned.

[Means for solving] An imaging device 100 is provided with an imaging element 103 a for picking up an image of an object, and a shutter 110 for driving the shutter blade 302 and controlling the exposure time of the imaging element ; This device has a holding member 120 for holding a shutter so as to be movable in a plane orthogonal to an imaging optical axis, and 1 urging members 402 a to 402 c for energizing the shutter in the 1 direction in the plane. The shutter has abutting portions 120 g to 120 I which contact the positioning portions 1 g to 301 I provided on the holding member and position the shutter at a predetermined position in the 301 direction. The shutter is movable from a predetermined position against an urging force of a 1 urging member, and the imaging device has 1 cushioning members 404 a and 404 b which contact a shutter which returns to a predetermined position by the energizing force of the 1 urging member.

More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

Source: Canon Rumors

Canon Patent: 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4 & 600mm f/4 For The EOS R System

Canon Patent

Ready for the start of the week, here is a new Canon patent application for RF mount lenses.

A new Canon patent application discusses optical formulas for three RF mount lenses:

  • 400mm f/2.8
  • 500mm f/4
  • 600mm f/4

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an optical system which is lightweight and has chromatic aberration and other aberrations satisfactorily corrected.

Example 1

  • Focal length: 392.00
  • F value: 2.90
  • Half angle of view: 3.16
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 360.03
  • Back focus: 31.01

Example 2

  • Focal length: 490.00
  • F value: 4.12
  • Half angle of view: 2.53
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 412.08
  • Back focus: 33.39

Example 3

  • Focal length: 588.00
  • F value: 4.12
  • Half angle of view: 2.11
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 476.08
  • Back focus: 33.21

This patent application might indeed lead to lenses that will be on sale one day.

The Canon patent application was spotted by asobinet. More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

Canon Patent: RF 80-240mm f/3.5 Zoom Lens For EOS R System

Canon Patent

Here is another Canon patent application. This one is for a RF 80-240mm f/3.5 zoom lens. This is not the first patent we feature today.

Canon patent application 2022-29115 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for a RF 80-240mm f/3.5 zoom lens.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact and lightweight zoom lens having high optical performance in the entire zoom and the entire focus range, and an image pickup device and an image pickup system having the same.

In recent years, the image pickup device has been miniaturized, and the image pickup device used in the image pickup device has a high pixel count. Further, the optical system used in the image pickup apparatus is required to have high optical performance, and to be compact and lightweight. In order to satisfy these requirements, a zoom with positive, negative, positive, positive, and negative refractive power first to fifth lens groups arranged in order from the object side to the image side to reduce various aberrations. A lens has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

In order to reduce the size of the zoom lens, it is effective to adopt a telephoto type power arrangement and increase the positive refractive power on the object side and the negative refractive power on the image side. However, if the refractive power of each lens group is increased, the fluctuations of various aberrations due to zooming and focusing become large, and it becomes difficult to satisfactorily correct the various aberrations with a limited number of lenses. Therefore, in order to achieve both the optical performance of the zoom lens and the miniaturization, it is important to appropriately set the refractive power of each lens group, the lens configuration, and the position of the focus group.

An object of the present invention is to provide a compact and lightweight zoom lens having high optical performance in the entire zoom and the entire focus range, and an image pickup apparatus and an image pickup system having the same.

Example 1

  • Focal length: 72.00-194.00
  • F value: 2.92
  • Half angle of view: 16.72-6.36
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 185.00-255.23
  • Back focus: 16.68-70.96

Example 2

  • Focal length: 72.00-194.00
  • F value: 3.5
  • Half angle of view: 16.72-6.36
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 185.00-255.16
  • Back focus: 15.63-65.11

Example 3

  • Focal length: 80.29-232.85
  • F value: 3.5
  • Half angle of view: 15.08-5.31
  • Image height: 21.64
  • Overall length: 222.75-325.37
  • Back focus: 11.49-64.12

More Canon patent applications are listed here. Some particularly interesting patent applications we think might get into production are these:

[via asobinet]