Canon Patents Two Exciting New Lenses

As Canon keeps filling out their RF mount lens library, more patents of interesting and innovative lenses have continued to emerge. Two new patents recently came to light, and these lenses look like potentially fantastic options for sports and wildlife photographers. 

The new patents are for supertelephoto zoom lenses with built-in teleconverters: the 200-400mm f/4 Extender 1.4x and the 200-500mm f/4 Extender 1.4x. With built-in 1.4x teleconverters, these lenses would become 280-560mm f/5.6 and 280-700mm f/5.6 lenses, respectively, with the devices activated. Beyond the extra versatility afforded by such a design, lenses with built-in teleconverters generally perform better than those with external teleconverters attached because the elements can be optically matched to maximize image quality and performance.

Of course, just because a patent is filed doesn't mean a lens will actually be brought to the market. However, the original EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x was rather popular with wildlife and sports photographers and widely respected for its performance, versatility, and image quality, so I fully expect to see an RF version of the lens at some point. That being said, such a lens will probably be rather expensive, likely exceeding $10,000.