Canon has long been known for pushing the boundaries of lens design, but their latest patent is extreme, even by their standards.
A new patent filing hints at an ambitious leap in lens design: a 24mm lens with an f/0.7 aperture. This combination of ultra-wide and ultra-fast is rare, typically hindered by size, weight, cost, optical compromises, and pretty much whatever else you can think of.
According to Canon Rumors, this intriguing development stems from Canon's patent application JP 2025-040484, which outlines a compact optical system aiming to merge a wide field of view with an exceptionally large aperture. Historically, lenses like the Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7—originally developed for NASA's Apollo missions and later used by Kubrick in "Barry Lyndon"—have achieved such apertures, but at longer focal lengths. A 24mm lens at f/0.7 would be unprecedented, potentially offering photographers and filmmakers new creative possibilities in low-light scenarios.
Achieving this design involves overcoming significant technical challenges. Wide angle lenses at such apertures often suffer from issues like coma, field curvature, and focus breathing. Moreover, the shorter flange distance in mirrorless camera systems leaves less room for internal lens elements, complicating the design further. Canon's patent suggests solutions to these problems, including innovative use of internal focusing groups to minimize composition shifts during focusing.
While the patent demonstrates Canon's commitment to pushing optical boundaries, it's important to note that not all patents result in commercial products. Frankly, I'd be extraordinarily surprised to see an f/0.7 lens, but perhaps Canon is seeing how far they can push things to find a Goldilocks lens in the middle — perhaps f/1.0? We'll see.
11 Comments
I will believe it when I see it. This lens would be insanely exciting but I suspect the reason no one has done it to date on a modern mount is because it is so hard to execute this sort of lens but still meet modern expectations of image quality.
I hope it does come true, it would be such a cool new offering, though I am sure the price tag will be bonkers if Nikon's 58mm 0.95 is a predictor.
Canon can patent whatever it wants.
They still re-released the 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 from 1999 for RF mount.
But who am I to complain about the 2nd brightest 300mm lens in the Canon RF lineup...
Even if I were a Canon shooter...nah. Not for me, I guess. Astrophotography, maybe?
If Canon actually made half the stuff they patent, there might be something to talk about.
Is that 2.2 stops faster? This is pretty significant, but I wonder what's cheaper: making this lens or making a sensor with 2.2 stops better ISO performance?
How about both! ;) I wanna shoot high key portraits on the dark side of the moon. ;)
Exactly two stops faster than f/1.4!
1 stop = multiply or divide by sqrt(2) = 1.4. 2 stops = multiply or divide by 2. f-stop comes from the ratio of the diameter between aperture and focal length. 1 stop means twice the amount of light let through (area), and since twice the area actually has a radius (or diameter) sqrt(2) bigger, that's where that comes from. A = PI*r^2; 2A = Pi*(sqrt(2)*r)^2.
To answer your question though, just sensor would be the easy answer, but from a lens standpoint, might be more interesting to see if even at f/0.7 it would still transmit more light through than a f/1.0 or f/1.2 lens due to internal losses.
if it did get produced it would prolly be price-tagged in the 5-digits.
"The shorter flange distance in mirrorless cameras"... is not a problem. A lens like this would be absolutely impossible for a DSLR, unless you could lock up the mirror in order to put it in. Remember, Canon's f/0.95 lens was made for their rangefinder cameras, not for their SLR cameras back in the day. The Barry Lyndon lens was made possible by putting a fast lens in front of a wide-angle adapter that was the opposite of a teleconverter in a single integrated lens, so if it's possible to make a 24mm APS-C lens with enough back focus for an SLR and a relatively fast speed (say f/1.2) it should be possible to manage this. And if the lens was optically impossible, wouldn't their patent not make sense?
I followed the link to the Canon Rumors page, and then I followed the link to the actual patent application. It shows three designs. Each design includes at least one wildly aspherical element, but then that sort of thing is seen all the time in smartphone lenses. However, each of the three designs also includes at least one lens made out of a material with a rather high refractive index: 1.85478, 1.95375, and 1.92286 were the highest in each of the three designs respectively, and the last two included several other elements with really high indices of refraction.
If such materials don't exist, then you could plug the designs into Zemax, and see the rays of light going where they were supposed to, without the lens being possible.