Canon continues its development of super telephoto zoom lenses with another patent application showcasing a lot of different designs. The RF 200-500mm f/5.6L IS USM design is the one that caught our attention.
We have been reporting for the last while that a fixed f/5.6 super telephoto zoom was coming, and likely alongside a bigger and faster zoom.
Canon RF 200-500mm f/5.6L IS USM
- Focal length: 205.00-495.00mm
- F-number: 5.75
- Half angle of view: 6.02°-2.50°
- Image height: 21.64
- Total length: 350.00
- Back focal length: 37.96
It is rare to see the exact optical design for an L lens to appear before the actual product is announced, but there are always a lot of related patent applications showcasing different optical designs, but the patents being more for a specific bit of tech.
This specific patent is for
To suppress aberration fluctuation and one-sided aperture occurrence that occur during zooming in a small and lightweight zoom lens.
Japan Patent Office 2025-080464
Size and weight continue to be a big area of development for obvious reasons, and it looks like the RF 200-500mm f/5.6L IS USM design is quite compact for what it is. The lens design here would be about the same length as the RF 100-300mm f/2.8L IS USM and with the same internal zoom design.
That also keeps it only slightly longer than the Nikon NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR.
Optical designs don’t generally tell us the expected weight or circumference of a lens design, just the length and backfocus on the physical side of things.
We’re going to be getting a lens like this sometime in next bunch of months, will this turn out to be what we see, or will we get something like an RF 150-600mm f/5.6L IS USM? We really hope to know with a level of certainty soon.
Source: Japan Patent Office
|
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. |
73 comments