I’m quite surprised that it’s taken this long for something like this to appear. Even just in patent form, it’s taken quite a while. To have not seen it in an interchangeable lens camera yet has always struck me as a little odd given the prevalence of this feature in smartphones and countless other devices – especially given the need for silent shooting in many genres, like weddings and events.

Still, Canon has patented (Japanese Patent #2023009356) a vibrating shutter button. It provides haptic feedback, vibrating to let you know when you’ve locked focus on a subject. In all other respects, it’s a perfectly normal shutter. When you half-press it, though, and it nails focus, you get physical feedback, letting you disable your audible confirmation and still be sure your subject’s in focus.

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