The Latest Canon Patents
Canon has been filing quite a few interesting lens patents lately, and the latest ones point toward several fast RF zooms and a new super-telephoto design. One patent describes an RF 75-135mm f/2L USM, an RF 200-400mm f/4L IS, and perhaps most interestingly, an RF 180-600mm f/6.3L IS USM. All three use a new internal zoom setup where the large front lens group stays in place and only the groups farther inside the lens move while zooming. Keeping that heavier front section stationary could make the zoom mechanism faster and smoother while also keeping the physical length of the lens unchanged.
A separate patent gets even more ambitious with an RF 20-60mm f/2L VCM. Five different optical designs are described, with two covering 20-60mm at a constant f/2 and the others covering roughly 20-50mm. This lens would also use internal zooming, but the focusing system is unusual too. The patent describes two independent focus motors, which could mean a combination of VCM and Nano USM motors or possibly two VCM units. Canon already uses VCM focusing in some of its newer RF primes, but it has not released a zoom using this kind of dual-motor arrangement yet.
None of this means we are definitely getting an RF 20-60mm f/2L, 75-135mm f/2L or 180-600mm f/6.3L anytime soon. Canon patents plenty of optical designs that never become actual products, and the final lenses can end up with different focal lengths or apertures anyway. What is more interesting is the pattern appearing across several recent patents. Canon seems to be spending quite a bit of time experimenting with internal zoom and focusing systems where fewer large lens groups need to move. We recently saw something similar in another Canon patent for a possible long RF macro lens, so even if these exact lenses never arrive, some of the underlying technology could eventually make its way into future RF glass.
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