Canon Files Compact Macro Lens Patent
A new Canon patent suggests the company is looking at ways to make longer macro lenses more compact, and one of the designs could potentially point toward something like an RF 200mm f/4L Macro in the future. Japanese patent 2026-144200 describes a five-group optical setup where only two groups move during focusing, while the front, middle, and rear groups stay in place. That is particularly useful with macro lenses because getting all the way down to 1:1 magnification normally requires quite a lot of focusing movement, which can make longer macro lenses pretty big and heavy.
The patent includes four optical designs ranging from roughly 88mm to 175mm, with the longest coming in at around 175mm f/3.6 and measuring approximately 189mm long. That is actually not much shorter than Canon’s old EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM, which is about 186mm long, but having less glass moving back and forth during focusing could potentially help reduce weight and improve autofocus performance. The shorter 90-130mm designs are probably less interesting as potential products, simply because Canon already has the RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, which covers much of that range and can already reach 1.4x magnification.
That makes the longest design the one to watch. It could potentially form the basis of a new 180-200mm macro lens, perhaps something along the lines of an RF 200mm f/4L Macro with modern autofocus and image stabilisation. A longer focal length would also give macro photographers more working distance than Canon’s current 100mm, which can be handy when shooting insects and other subjects that do not exactly appreciate having a lens pushed right up to them. Canon has not announced anything yet, though, and patents regularly cover designs that never become real products. For now, there is already the Laowa 180mm f/4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO for RF mount, although unlike some of the other mount versions, the Canon RF model is manual-focus only.
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