Canon’s New Lens Patent

credits: Canon

Canon’s newest lens patent is an interesting one. It outlines a three-group optical design that Canon says could deliver faster autofocus while also helping reduce the size and weight of future lenses. It is another sign of the direction Canon has been taking throughout the RF era, where the company has consistently worked on making fast-aperture lenses smaller without sacrificing image quality or autofocus performance.

The basic idea is actually pretty simple. Instead of moving several groups of lens elements during focusing, Canon’s design keeps the front and rear optical groups fixed, while only the middle group moves to achieve focus. Because that focusing group is smaller and lighter, the autofocus motor has less glass to move, allowing it to react more quickly. This approach works especially well alongside Canon’s latest autofocus technologies, such as Voice Coil Motors (VCM) and Nano USM, both of which are already used in several RF lenses. Using fewer and smaller lens elements naturally also helps reduce the overall size and weight of the lens. Of course, lens design is always a balancing act, since changing one part of the optical formula affects everything from sharpness and distortion to chromatic aberration, balance, and cost.

The patent itself includes 21 different lens designs, showing how this three-group concept could be applied across a range of focal lengths. Among them are wide-angle primes such as 12mm f/1.2, 14mm f/2, 15mm f/1.4, and 16mm f/1.8. Whether any of these exact lenses ever make it to market is impossible to know, as patents often include concepts that never become real products.