New Patents Show Canon Hasn’t Given Up on the EF Mount Just Yet

A new patent uncovered by the folks over at Canon News reveals that Canon hasn’t given up on improving EF-mount lenses, especially those that appeal to high-end sports and wildlife photographers.

Canon’s recent admission that the company is more-or-less done making new EF lenses unless the market “demands it” has many professional photographers understandably worried. Not everyone wants to jump into mirrorless, especially high-end sports and wildlife photographers who have tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars invested in EF-mount gear.

But fear not, it seems Canon hasn’t totally given up on R&D for the EF-mount.

A Japanese patent application uncovered by Canon News show that the company is still working to improve their lineup of super-telephoto primes for sports and wildlife shooters; lenses like the 400mm f/2.8L and 600mm f/4.0L are being looked at to see if there’s a way to increase focus speed while reducing aberrations.

Based on the patent images, the lenses described would also follow in Sony’s super-telephoto footsteps by redistributing most of the optics further back inside the lens barrel, making each of the lenses described far less front-heavy and much easier to hand-hold if need-be.

Five lenses are mentioned in all—300mm f/2.8L IS USM, 400mm f/2.8L IS USM, 500mm f/4.0 IS USM, 600mm f/4.0L IS USM, 800mm f/5.6L IS USM—leading us to believe that we’ll see at least one more generation of each of these EF-mount lenses. Of course, a patent does not necessarily guarantee that new lenses will ever come to fruition, but we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed.

(via Canon Rumors)

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