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ARRI settles its patent lawsuits with Rotolight over user-customisable lighting effects

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“ARRI has agreed to a settlement with Rotolight”, a joint statement between the two companies begins. In September 2021, ARRI began legal proceedings towards Rotolight, amongst others, disputing the validity of their lighting effect patents. The challenge came in view of what ARRI called “myriad prior art”. Basically, it’s been around for years, so what’s Rotolight done that’s actually new and patentable? They argued that it was “not new, but rather state of the art”.

They argued that the patents should never have been issued in the first place. That the company’s “advances” were nothing more than building upon known technical solutions that had been “well established in the market for many years”. Well, ARRI and Rotolight seem to have figured things out because they’ve reached a settlement, and the patents still stand.

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Canon patents a bunch of cinema lenses including 40-100mm f/1.5, 18-45mm f/1.5 and 70-210mm f/2.5

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Well, this is interesting. Canon patents new lens designed all the time, but these days, it’s typically in relation to RF mount lenses targeted specifically towards photography. In this case, though, it looks like Canon’s filed patents for several lenses that appear to actually be cinema lenses. The big giveaway is in the opening description, referring specifically to “Super 35 format” rather than APS-C.

The new lenses look pretty interesting, too, and may potentially upset the balance of common staples like the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 and 50-100mm f/1.8 Art series lenses commonly used for video due to their wide aperture and focal length range. The patent actually mentions a number of different lens designs, with various focal ranges and maximum apertures of between f/1.5 and f/2.5.

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Fujifilm patents 28mm, 32mm and 35mm f/1.0 lenses – Are they expanding their f/1.0 lineup?

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Fujifilm has patented three new lenses, the Fujinon XF 28mm f/1.0, Fujinon XF 32mm f/1.0 and Fujinon FX 35mm f/1.0. That’s three lenses with big wide apertures for ultra-low-light shooting and a shallow depth of field that a lot of Fuji shooters would love to get mounted to their cameras. The patent explains that there has been a demand in recent years for lenses with wider apertures as well as the issues with creating them.

Fuji does already have the Fuji XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR lens, so it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that they’re planning to expand their f/1.0 lineup and one of these might also come to fruition. But I think it’s more likely that these might simply have been registered for the sake of owning the intellectual property and they’re probably not planning to release any of them.

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Ricoh files new lens patents – Is Pentax finally considering going mirrorless?

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A few days ago, Ricoh filed a patent application in Japan for three new full-frame telephoto lenses, one of which is for mirrorless cameras. These aren’t the first they’ve filed, either, having filed patents for a couple of other mirrorless lenses a month ago. Could this be a turning point for Pentax, the one company that’s been holding onto DSLRs for dear life while the rest of the world goes mirrorless?

The three new lenses described by the patent aren’t particularly high end. They’re all variable aperture, although the one for mirrorless has a max variable aperture of f/2.8-4, so not too terrible. It’s doubtful, though that Pentax is planning to pursue the mirrorless market. At least, not yet.

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Canon patents reveal some info about eye-controlled AF coming in the EOS R3

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Made famous with 35mm SLR cameras like the EOS 3 and EOS 5 (A2/A2e in the USA), Canon’s eye-controlled autofocus system has been sorely missed by some over the last couple of decades. It never made it into any of their DSLRs, but it seems it will be making a comeback in the recently announced Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera.

New patents filed by Canon (US 2021/0124239 and US 2021/0125375) have now revealed a little information about how the user will be able to interact with it through the menu system and how you’ll be able to calibrate it. Eye-controlled autofocus wasn’t perfect back in the film days, let’s hope Canon has got it figured out now.

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New Sony patent shows a lens that lets you focus after you take the shot

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Sony Alpha Rumours just spotted a patent (although they didn’t link to it so we can all have a read) showing a new “light field” lens for the Sony E Mount. Sony teamed up with the folks at Light (of Light L16 fame) just over a year ago with a deal that, at the time, appeared to primarily focus on Light’s multi-camera technology in smartphones.

It seems that this technology might be also coming to Sony mirrorless bodies, though, thanks to a new lens design.

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Canon patents a pop-up EVF to allow for larger rear LCDs

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I’m genuinely amazed that this isn’t already a thing, but Canon has filed a patent for a pop-up electronic viewfinder. It really does make a lot of sense, because it means that there isn’t normally something sticking out the top of the camera when not in use, and when it is in use, you still get the entire back of the camera for your LCD – what appears to be the main goal of the patent.

The patent only shows a point & shoot – perhaps this is an idea for a future G7X Mark IV – but there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t potentially appear in some of Canon’s EOS M lineup, too, or possibly even in an entry-level full-frame EOS R body.

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Fujifilm has filed a new patent for XF 300mm f/4 and super-long 500mm f/5.6 lenses

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Given the social distancing measures in place around the world right now, this seems like a good idea. Fujifilm Japan has filed a new patent for a couple of long telephoto prime lenses. Specifically, XF 300mm f/4 and 500mm f/5.6 lenses. Designed for Fujifilm’s line of APS-C cameras, these would offer the equivalent field of view to about 450mm and 750mm respectively on full-frame systems.

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Canon working on universal battery grip, patent suggests

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An interesting patent from Canon was recently spotted, one that many photographers could find very useful. Judging from the patent application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Canon could be developing a universal battery grip that will fit different camera models.

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