Canon Patents Yet Another Set of Crazy Lenses

Canon Patents Yet Another Set of Crazy Lenses

It has only been a week since news of exciting Canon lens patents came out, and here we are again with another set of ridiculous lenses emerging from the company. This time, it is for a set of superzooms that stretch beyond the limits of most such lenses we have seen in the past. 

The patents, discovered by Northlight Images, detail four new superzoom lenses:

  • 24-400mm f/4-6.5
  • 24-300mm f/4-5.6
  • 28-500mm f/4-7.2
  • 30-600mm f/8

Of course, with zoom ranges as large as 20x, such lenses would probably be distinct from those seen last week in terms of image quality and intended application, but they are sure to make plenty of photographers drool over the prospect of having one lens to cover everything from wide angles to the most extreme supertelephoto focal lengths. As always, the appearance of a patent doesn't mean a product will make it to the market, and there is zero chance of Canon bringing all four of these lenses to the market. That being said, I would not be at all surprised to see a more extreme superzoom than the RF 24-240mm F/4-6.3 IS USM eventually appear. 

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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13 Comments

It would be interesting to see some of the details on these patents. For example, I would like to know if they are all for full frame lenses, or if any of them are for APS-C crop sensors.

Unless I'm mistaken, they don't have RF aps-c cameras yet so these are most likely full frame.

Makes sense, but I am under the impression that lens patents are often applied for 5 to 10 years before said lenses are ever manufactured and marketed, and a lot can happen in 5 to 10 years, inasmuch as camera bodies are concerned.

Another thing too is full frame lenses are typically easily backwards compatible with aps-c bodies. Whereas the other way around can't be said.

Also, Canon does not have a history of building extreme aps-c zooms.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/list/lenses/ef

Well it depends. The canon ef 28-300 L IS USM was released in 2004 and is for both aps-c and full frame. They didn't do any other probably because it wasn't really worth it. You couldn't go high with ISO and as canon had only stabilised lenses it was waste of efforts. Now with higher ISO and stabilised lenses plus sensor after the launch of 600/f11 and 800/f11 i think this could be happening

I know, but so many people still complain that there are so few APS-C optimised lenses for use on APS-C bodies, such as the Nikon Z50...

Somehow the availability of the entire range of Nikon Z FF lenses doesn't matter, even though corner-sharpness and vignetting characteristics are probably improved when using FF lenses on APS-C bodies!

... The glass is heavier and so it's not as attractive, the argument goes.

I read that canon is planning on releasing the R7 camera in a few months. Which is the mirrorless version of the 7D series. Which the 7D series is the top of the line in crop sensors.

There are persistent rumours of an APS-C R camera being in the pipeline, like the above-mentioned R7.

I'm holding out for the 14-800mm.

7-400 with 2x teleconverter 😂

Teleconverters reduce image quality.

...

But a 7-400mm lens would probably have so much distortion already that who cares. 😂

the 2x better be built in.

Or 4x 😂