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Canon planning to replace focus rings with touch panels on the lens?

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Canon has filed a pretty interesting looking patent at the Japan Patent Office. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet, but it replaces the focus ring on the lens with a touch panel which would let you control the lens with your thumb as you handhold it.

On the plus side, it’d make people start to hold their cameras properly, but it does seem like it’d be a bit of a pain for a lot of photographers, particularly those shooting on tripods – like landscape or product photographers. It does offer a lot of potential for cool features, though.

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Canon has patented a bunch of fast(ish) portrait-length 70-100mm RF prime lenses

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A new Canon patent application has popped up on the Japan Patent Office website detailing six new RF mount prime lenses ranging in focal length from 70mm up to 100mm. With the exception of an 85mm f/1.8, all of the lenses sport an f/2 aperture. So, they’re not super fast (with perhaps the exception of one), but they’re faster than zooms, yet slow enough to potentially be relatively low budget lenses.

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A new patent suggests Canon’s eye-controlled focus may be coming back

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For those who hear about the fact that Canon used to have 35mm SLRs with eye-controlled AF, but have never had the opportunity to try it themselves, it’s an intriguing proposition. Look at something, and the camera just focuses on it. Sounds great, right? Well, for those that have actually used it, the response is very mixed. My dad had it on his EOS 5. He loved it. I tried it and I hated it.

The theory’s great, but the implementation wasn’t. Canon seemed to abandon the idea, but now a new patent suggests that they might be looking to reintroduce the concept into future EOS R mirrorless cameras at some point.

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Godox to release an updated “V1 Pro” round head speedlight with built-in cooling fan

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This seems a little bit weird, but not an entirely unreasonable idea. Godox has filed a patent that looks very similar to the existing Godox V1 speedlight, except that this one includes a built-in cooling fan below the lamp assembly. Lighting Rumours believes that an announcement for the improved “V1 Pro” is imminent.

In all other respects, the V1 and new “V1 Pro” detailed in the patent seen to be largely identical. Both will have similar zooming circular heads, both feature the magnetic mount for the AK-R1 kit and other round magnetic modifiers, and both are powered by seemingly the same lithium-ion battery.

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Canon has patented an Osmo gimbal-style camera with interchangeable lenses

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This is pretty odd, but also kind of cool. Canon has patented (through no fewer than five separate patents) a strange DJI Osmo-like gimbal with a built-in camera that actually has interchangeable lenses and a hotshoe on top. What makes it odd, though, is that it doesn’t really seem to be quite like any gimbals we’ve seen before.

For a start, there doesn’t appear to be a way to actually balance the lens horizontally for tilting. It doesn’t slide backwards and forwards, it just tilts. And it doesn’t look large enough to actually contain any kind of motor in there. It does pans from side to side, though. It looks like Canon is possibly going to be relying on IBIS for this one.

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Canon has patented a strange-but-cool zoomable 1-2x teleconverter

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Well, this is an interesting idea, and pretty unique, too. Canon has patented a zoomable teleconverter. You know, those things that effectively increase the focal length of your lens? I’ve never even considered that a teleconverter could even be a zoomable device and I’ve certainly never seen one before. According to Canon’s patent, though, it seems doable.

The patent seems to show adjustments from 1.0x to 1.5x and 2.0x with the movement of a lever, allowing you to quickly switch between a lens’s normal focal length, a 1.5x magnification and a 2x magnification. As Canon News points out, this offers a multitude of benefits from convenience to improved weather resistance.

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Canon patents four RF mount cinema zoom lenses

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A new patent discovered by the folks at Canon News seems to suggest that Canon’s been working on some RF mount cinema zoom lenses. What leads them to believe that these are cine lenses, are that they’re designed for an APS-C format and that the image circle is larger than that of a typical 3:2 format Canon APS-C sensor.

There are rumours of upcoming APS-C RF mount mirrorless cameras on the way, although none exist as of right now. If the rumours on such a camera turns out to be true, then these may end up being very high-end APS-C zooms. I think Super 35mm cine lenses is far more likely, though, especially with the recent release of the EOS Cinema C70.

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Yongnuo is developing another weird camera and this time it’s “modular”

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Modular cameras are not a new idea, but as the world switched from film to digital, modular systems mostly disappeared for photographers – unless you count being able to swap lenses as “modularity”. Fuji is working on one, but other than that, there isn’t much out there in the way of modular cameras (not counting cinema cameras).

It looks like, surprisingly, Yongnuo is looking to change that, though, after filing a patent describing a rather strange-looking modular mirrorless camera. The patent was filed back in 2019 while the world was still waiting to see what was happening with this oddity and it’s very peculiar Android-powered camera, but was just approved and published recently.

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New Sigma patent describes 12mm f/2.8, 14mm f/2 and 14mm f/2.8 lenses for L/E mounts

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A new patent from Sigma, spotted by the folks at Hi Lows Note, describes three new full-frame lenses designed for mirrorless camera systems – the Leica L and Sony E mount systems. The lenses described by the patent are a 14mm f/2, a 14mm f/2.8 and a rather intriguing 12mm f/2.8.

There is currently a Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art series lens available for both Leica L and Sony E mounts, however, it’s essentially their DSLR lens with an extended barrel to fix the flange distance. The patent suggests a new replacement model could be imminent!

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Canon’s Quad Pixel AF patent – Maybe the sensor for upcoming EOS R1?

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Canon’s Dual Pixel Autofocus (DPAF) has been one of Canon’s biggest selling points ever since they first introduced the technology in 2013 with the EOS 70D DSLR. The technology has developed ever since, with the EOS R5 and EOS R6 cameras having some of the best AF performance available in mirrorless cameras today.

But DPAF isn’t perfect. It’s fantastic if the edge contrast of what you’re focusing on is oriented 90 degrees to how you’re holding the camera, but if you’re holding the camera horizontal and the edge you’re focusing on is also horizontal, it can struggle. This new patent suggests a solution. Quad Pixel Autofocus!

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