Canon In Top Five For Number Of Patents Granted For 35 Consecutive Years

Canon Patents
View Post

Canon is very prolific when it comes to patent applications.

Canon press release:

Canon Ranked 3rd in the 2020 IFI CLAIMS U.S. Patent Rankings

Canon has Now Ranked in the Top Five for Number of Patents Granted for 35 Consecutive Years

MELVILLE, NY, January 13, 2021 – Continuing its mission of empowering innovation, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is proud to announce that its parent company, Canon Inc., ranked third for the number of U.S. patents awarded in 2020 with 3,226 patents.1 With this year’s ranking, Canon has now ranked in the top five for number of patents granted for 35 consecutive years, according to the latest ranking of preliminary patent results issued by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. Additionally, Canon once again ranked first in patents among Japanese companies for the 16th consecutive year.

“As the world continues to shift and the needs of our customers evolve, we too will continue exploring new areas and future opportunities for innovation that will benefit our customers,” said Seymour Liebman, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of Canon U.S.A. Inc and senior managing executive officer of Canon Inc. “Canon is proud to be in the top three patent holders as it further demonstrates our commitment to delivering innovative ideas and solutions that meet market and customer demands.”

Canon actively promotes the globalization of its business and places great value on obtaining patents overseas. Among these, the United States, with its many high-tech companies and large-market scale, represents a particularly important region in terms of business expansion and technology alliances.

Canon promotes the acquisition and utilization of intellectual property rights, not only for fundamental technologies required for next-generation products, but also for such technologies as wireless communication and image-compression shared by the next-generation social infrastructure.

For more information on Canon and its products, please visit www.usa.canon.com.

Latest Canon Patents: Stacked Sensor and C700 Shaped Video Camera

Canon Patents
View Post

Two new Canon patents for you to speculate about. One is about a stacked imaging sensor, the other one describes a video camera that looks a lot like the C700.

Canon patent application 2021-002807 (Japan) discusses a stacked imaging sensor. Machine translated excerpt from the patent literature:

In the prior art, while the pixel signal can be read out at high speed, the number of vertical output lines in each pixel row increases, so that the number of constant current circuits to be connected increases and the power consumption increases. In particular, the increase in power consumption during Live View shooting greatly affects the number of shots that can be taken. Further, as the vertical output line of each pixel sequence increases, the scale of the correction circuit for correcting the offset to the pixel signal and the gain variation caused by the vertical output line increases. Correction circuit after the image sensor.

If it cannot cope with the increase in the vertical output line, it is necessary to mount a correction circuit on the image sensor. In this case, it is necessary to also mount a memory for storing the correction value, the power due to the read / write of the memory also increases, and the power consumption increases more and more.
The   present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image pickup apparatus capable of achieving both high-speed reading of a pixel signal and reduction of power consumption.

Doesn’t look like a patent that might hit the market any time soon.

Canon patent application 2021-002871 (Japan) discusses a video camera that appears to look like the Canon EOS C700. The patent literature discusses a better wiring layout.

When the number of connectors is further increased, if the connectors are arranged on the side surface of the camera body, the connectors are likely to come off due to the cable being caught when the camera body is moved while being carried on the shoulder. 
On the other hand, if all the connectors are arranged on the back surface of the camera body, the size of the camera body in the width direction is further increased, and the shape becomes unsuitable for a shoulder-mounted professional digital video camera.

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

Canon Patent: RF 50mm f/1.4 and RF 35mm f/1.4 Lenses For EOS R

Canon Patent
View Post

Another Canon patent dealing with lenses for the RF mount, i.e. for Canon’s full frame mirrorless system EOS R.

Canon patent application 2020-181071 (Japan) discusses optical formulas for an RF 50mm F1.4 and an RF 35mm f/1.4 lens. This patent application is particularly interesting since 50mm f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.4 are two very classic lenses for a full frame system.

The patent application seems to reveal a modern and complex optical design with front and rear lenses for optical correction. Moreover, we think it has internal focusing, a small size and a very fast auto-focus. Another two lenses that might go into production.

Example 1Example 2Example 3
Focal length51.5048.4748.49
F value1.451.451.85
Half angle of view22.7924.0524.04
Image height21.6421.6421.64
full length95.19108.8491.98
BF11.4911.3911.48
Example 4Example 5
Focal length48.4933.99
F value1.451.45
Half angle of view24.0432.48
Image height21.6421.64
full length116.56131.16
BF13.2312.05

More Canon patent applications are listed here.

[via asobinet.com]

Canon Patent: RF 80mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 Lens For EOS R System

Canon Patent
View Post

And yet another Canon patent for a lens for the EOS R full frame mirrorless camera system,

Canon patent application 2020-181169A (Japan) discusses optical formulas for an RF 80mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 lens.

  • Focal length: 80.45 mm
  • F number: 2.90
  • Half angle of view: 15.05
  • Image height: 21.64 mm
  • Lens length: 123.69 mm
  • Back focus: 13.72 mm

Interesting lens I have to say. Let’s hope it goes into production.

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

[via Hi Lows Note]

Canon Patent Shows RF Mount Zoom Lens That Could Be For An APS-C EOS R Camera

Aps-c Eos R
View Post

Interesting Canon patent application. Various zoom lenses for the EOS R system are discussed, with one being particularly interesting since it seems to point to an APS-C EOS R.

Canon patent application (2020-170102, Japan) discusses optical formulas for zoom lenses for the Canon EOS R system. The patent literature discusses the following zoom lenses:

Example 1Example 2Example 3
Focal length24.72-67.9024.72-116.4024.72-101.85
F value4.124.04-7.314.29-7.31
Half angle of view41.50-17.3041.80-10.3041.80-11.80
Image height19.69-21.6419.90-21.6419.90-21.64
full length101.50-141.15109.01-159.02107.52-158.03
BF12.50-24.861415-31.0113.48-35.52
Example 4Example 5
Focal length27.72-82.4515.45-67.90
F value3.53-5.883.93-7.31
Half angle of view38.53-14.7042.40-11.37
Image height19.69-21.6412.56-13.65
full length101.50-142.5071.26-113.36
BF14.16-32.5212.40-24.51
Look at example 5

As you can see from the table above, there are 24-70mm, 24-116mm, 24-100mm, 27.80mm, and, listed under “Example 5”, a 15-70mm f/4-7.1 zoom lens with an image height that doesn’t work for a full frame sensor on a mirrorless camera. However, the lens is based on the same design principles as the others, so it might be for an APS-C EOS R camera.

If you have a better understanding of the patent (or of Japanese), spotted by asobinet.com, please help me out on this. Is this really a lens for an EOS R camera with an APS-C sensor??

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

Canon Working On An RF 8-15mm f/4 Fish-eye Zoom Lens, Patent Suggests

Fish-eye
View Post

A new Canon patent application suggests the company might have an interesting lens for the EOS R ecosystem up their sleeve.

Hi Lows Note spotted Canon patent application 2020-166234A (Japan), where optical formulas for an RF 8-15mm f/4 fish-eye lens are discussed. The lens seems to be pretty much the mirrorless counterpart to the EF 8-15mm f/4 fish-eye.

  • Zoom ratio: 1.85
  • Focal length: 8.10 12.51 15.01 mm
  • F number: 4.10 4.10 4.10
  • Half angle of view: 90.14 90.45 90.39
  • Image height: 11.50 18.00 21.60 mm
  • Lens length: 123.74 111.21 109.67 mm
  • Back focus: 11.78 20.27 24.66 mm

We think it’s very likely this lens will hit the market, sooner or later. Btw, it’s not the first patent for a fish-eye lens for EOS R.

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