Canon today released their 2023 financials and the outlook in Camp Canon is bright and sunny. Canon overall had a net sales increase of 3.7% for fiscal 2023 when compared to 2022. This translated to an operating profit increase of 15.9% from 2022. Canon says this about their imaging department for this fiscal year. Indicating that entry-level and prosumer mirrorless cameras have led the way. In the Imaging Business Unit, sales of interchangeable-lens digital cameras, in particular mirrorless cameras like the EOS R6 Mark II, a full-frame mirrorless camera released the year before last, and the new entry-level EOS R50…
Author: Richard
Okay, I know this is beating a dead horse as a matter of fact, the horse has been beaten to death, dragged off, and turned into glue already. But when I saw this patent application from Sigma today, and tossed it over to Craig, his response was “Well, don’t expect Canon to ever do a lens like that” to which I agree. Canon has an aversion to doing nice things for APS-C and seems to think that high-end lenses for APS-C should be rare things that happen once a decade if not longer. For example, Canon did exactly one high-end…
In this patent application (2024-011653), Canon explores using electronically controlled lenses (aka EF or RF lenses) in other fields that they currently offer products for such as medical and industrial imaging. Essentially Canon is looking at the industrialization of the EOS platform. Where all our external controls would be either network, ASIC-controlled or by various other means. From the lens perspective, it would feel to the lens that it was attached to a camera so it operates as normal. It’s the automation and control over the lens communication that this patent application deals with. With RF lenses more than with…
One of the most hotly patented and contested areas of sensor patent space is how stacked substrates talk to each other. Before Canon released its first stacked sensor in the R3, I had lost count of how many stacked sensor patents dealt with the interconnects between 2 substrates. Usually, the more interconnects between the subtracts the more complex and costly it is. Each pixel usually “talks” to the second substrate because that’s where all the logic and the ADC circuitry reside. So there’s a fair amount of connections between the top and bottom substrate. This is one of the first…
In this patent application (2024-010559), Canon explores some new designs for macro lenses. With the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, any of the longer focal length designs are unlikely to reach production. There is a 50mm 1:1 Macro that would certainly be useful. All the Macro lenses shown in the embodiments include image stabilization. You never know if Canon will decide that a smaller version of the 100mm macro is a good idea, and certainly, there is room for the 50mm in Canon’s portfolio. Canon RF 110mm F4.0 1.0x Macro IS Focal length 111.29 F number 4.12 Half…
BCN has released its 2024 awards for the annual year of 2023. BCN represents a good section of the Japan regional sales, giving us a look into the domestic pulse of the camera industry. Please make no mistake about it, these companies have a lot of pride and want to do well in the domestic market. Canon did well overall but there is certainly some shocking information if you were a Canon Japan executive. Canon placed first in DSLR, first in Compact Camera, and second in Mirrorless camera categories. This is good news overall for Canon as they continue to…
BCN which aggregates Japan sales information in various tech industries released a report ahead of their 2023 awards showing that Canon placed in spots 3 to 5 in their overall aggregate camera line sales for 2023. I understand this summarizes the cameras independent of whether the camera was sold as part of a lens kit or body only. The clear winner was Sony with a total of 3 cameras including the only full-frame camera in the top 10 and commanding the 1st and 2nd place positions. Canon took the next 3 positions to round out the top 5. In a…
In this patent application (2024-007656), Canon looks to create small ultra wides for both full frame and crop. One of the designs is curiously either similar or is the RF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-6.3. If it is the actual RF-S 10-18, then it also gives us the lowest back focus distance for the RF mount that Canon feels comfortable with. Of course, this can be easily seen by looking at images of the 10-18, and while it does sit pretty far back into the mount, it doesn’t seem to sit back 10mm (going by images, the lens seems to sit back around…
In this patent application (2024-009238) we have a series of telephoto primes for the RF mount. We know these are specifically for the RF mount because the back focus distance is under 44mm. Also, with a more relaxed back focus distance (greater than 20mm) they should work with Canon’s tele-extenders. While the current RF super telephotos have been out for a while, we haven’t seen any specific RF designs used yet for the big whites. It’s pretty early for Canon to replace the big whites so I wouldn’t necessarily expect any of these designs to end up on a lens…
Back in the Canon EOS EF days, Canon made several large super zooms, mainly the Canon EF 100-300mm f/5.6L, and the Canon EF 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6L USM. But outside of the consumer Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM, they haven’t dipped into that segment of the market too heavily yet. In this patent application (2024-005834), we have several longer superzooms that Canon may be exploring. From looking at the embodiments I would suggest that these lenses would be more prosumer or professional simply because they have a full image circle from wide to telephoto and their speeds are faster than what…