Patent: Canon 12-35mm f/2-3.5 for 4/3 Sensor

[Canon Rumors]

A patent has been filed for a 12-35mm f/2-3.5 lens for a 4/3″ image sensor by Canon.</p>
<ul>
<li>Patent Publication No. 2015-72369

Published 2015.4.16

Filing date 2013.10.3</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m not sure what the application for such a lens would be. It could be for a point & shoot style camera, or a new EOS M camera, or nothing at all.</p>
<p>Source: [<a href="http://egami.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2015-05-11" target="_blank">EG</a>]</p>

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Its puzzling. a 3X zoom doesn't sound like a surveillance camera lens or a point and shoot either.

I did discover a improved and much much faster Japanese patent office search engine. Just put the patent number is the second line, and it brings up a link to a English Translated version. I find its better than Google translations, but still difficult at times. If the speed I experienced is typical, they have moved from a 1-2 minute wait for a page to near instant display;.

https://www4.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/eng/tokujitsu/tkbs_en/TKBS_EN_GM101_Top.action

 

[WorkonSunday]

interesting that the previously patented 70-400 lens also has a image circle thats roughly cover a m43 but not an APSC. is canon joining the m43 wagon

 

[photonius]

12-35 translates to 24-70.

A 24-70 lens for a m4/3 camera. Sounds like a familiar focal length.

Also, the patent references the G1X Mk II.

There's no point in developing a lens if there is no camera... so...

Where is the Canon m4/3 camera? (And/or patents?)

maybe a Steve Jobs approach (hedging your bets, they had OsX running on Intel all the time, while it was officially only released for PowerPC). Canon makes a lot of lenses, if EOS-M fails, they can always move to the m4/3 standard, selling lenses even for Olympus, etc., while eventually coming up with a m4/3 body. After all, m4/3 is open, so no need to patent a body (even take existing bodies and stick a m4/3 sensor in them), but the lens designs always seems to be patented.
Maybe they just want to scare the m4/3 crowd a bit

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Lets count, how many bodies does any single photo person have? How many lenses do the have?

If 9x.xxxx% of the photos are viewed on the web, MF 4/3 makes for a handy market to sell lenses into.

More than once, I have pondered going to MF4/3. Size, weight, intrusiveness, cost ( a 2.8 24-70 consumes a lot more material than a 12-35 built for a small image circle)

Will it replace the pros at the olympics? Nope, would it be an option to a huge population that wants to 2-3 lenses and something that packs in a small package. And they aren't going to do 20x30 or 30x40 prints.

Even if I leave the tamzooka at home, my 5dIII, 24, 50, 16-35 and 70-200 weighs a ton, the MF4/3 would be roughly 1/2 the weight and much smaller package.

 

[WorkonSunday]

or, their research department somehow thinks EOS m line just overlaps too much with their 1xxxD and 7xxD line so the only way to push it further down the ladder is start a new line (4/3" sensors, but may be with different mount) to replace EOS-m line.


as a eos m3 owner. i sure hope thats not the case!

 

[photonius]

12-35 translates to 24-70.

A 24-70 lens for a m4/3 camera. Sounds like a familiar focal length.

Also, the patent references the G1X Mk II.

There's no point in developing a lens if there is no camera... so...

Where is the Canon m4/3 camera? (And/or patents?)

...
Canon makes a lot of lenses, if EOS-M fails, they can always move to the m4/3 standard, selling lenses even for Olympus, etc., while eventually coming up with a m4/3 body. After all, m4/3 is open, so no need to patent a body (even take existing bodies and stick a m4/3 sensor in them), but the lens designs always seems to be patented.
Maybe they just want to scare the m4/3 crowd a bit

Yeah, I don't know about you but I can't see Canon just being a lens seller in the m4/3s market.

No, of course it doesn't make sense at present. I think it's just Canon keeping a tap on that market (perhaps also for a special GX?). We do know however that Canon is looking to expand its market, buying surveillance company AXIS. So they are looking for opportunities to sell more glass. Maybe m4/3 is even under consideration for surveillance?
Also, Canon is probably selling a number of lenses to Sony owners who use them via adapters.

 

[jeffa4444]

4/3rds is an open standard and Canon is properly hedging its bets I doubt it would make lenses only and definately not just for Olympus. Mitsubishi and Sony hold shares in Olympus bought after Olympus scandal broke cover about its un-declared losses. For Sony this got them into the medical equipment business, for Olympus it gave them cash and a sensor deal so quite what would be in it for Canon to endorse 4/3rds is anybody guess. Panasonic the other initial partner in 4/3rds is in a partnership with Fuji on organic sensors and with TowerJazz on sensor fabrication. Canon dont tend to do partnerships but know the traditional DSLR market is under stress partially through size & weight and with improvements to small pixels may well be looking at 4/3rds just in case.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Yeah, I don't know about you but I can't see Canon just being a lens seller in the m4/3s market.

Agreed. I didn't look at the registration distance, to work with micro 4/3 that would need to match the spec as well as the mount, and the mount is patented, so there would need to be a agreement which seems unlikely, since Canon might have to give reciprocal information, and that will never happen.

 

[meywd]

Maybe they are planning on buying a m4/3s camera company in the future, or maybe the research team found a good formula and decided to make a patent in case someone made a similar lens, they will make them pay license for it.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Maybe they are planning on buying a m4/3s camera company in the future, or maybe the research team found a good formula and decided to make a patent in case someone made a similar lens, they will make them pay license for it.

That's always a possibility, but the formula should work for APS-C as well.