Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Aug 16, 2022 by John Aldred Leave a Comment
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.
The patent overview description reads:
The lens diameter of the lens group closest to the object side in the first lens group is determined by the off-axis ray at the wide-angle end, and the lens diameter of the lens group closest to the image side in the first lens group is determined by the on-axis ray at the telephoto end. Therefore, if the first lens group is thickened, the size of the lens will increase if the aperture is to be further increased. In the zoom lens of Patent Literature 1, since the first lens group is thick, the zoom lens may become large if it is intended to accommodate a large-format sensor such as a Super 35 format or a full-frame format while maintaining the F-number.
What’s particularly interesting about these lenses, though, is the very large flange distances they’re designed for. Most of the lenses have a flange distance of around 39mm, which is significantly longer than that of the RF mount’s 20mm flange distance but also a little short of the EF mount’s 44mm flange distance. It’s also far short of PL mount’s 52mm flange distance. In fact, the only one that would potentially work on a PL mount cinema camera is the 45-130mm f/2.2.
That being said, it wouldn’t be difficult for Canon to build these for RF mount use. After all, Sigma managed to convert all of their DSLR lenses over to mirrorless by simply extending the length of the mount and building it into the body design before designing new mirrorless-specific lenses from scratch. There’s no reason why Canon can’t use the same principle here with these. I mean, it’s not like cinema guys are all that bothered about keeping their rigs compact, usually – and you can bet these wouldn’t be small lenses anyway.
Of course, it’s also just a patent and there’s never a guarantee we’ll see a real live product from any patent filing. But any of these would make for some pretty cool lenses to shoot with!
Filed Under: news Tagged With: Canon, Cine Lens, patent, patents
John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio. You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio. You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
Dunja Djudjic is a writer and photographer from Novi Sad, Serbia. You can see her work on Flickr, Behance and her Facebook page.
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