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Canon’s New Lens Patent

Canon’s newest lens patent is an interesting one. It outlines a three-group optical design that Canon says could deliver faster autofocus while also helping reduce the size and weight of future lenses. It is another sign of the direction Canon has been taking throughout the RF era, where the company has consistently worked on making fast-aperture lenses smaller without sacrificing image quality or autofocus performance.

The basic idea is actually pretty simple. Instead of moving several groups of lens elements during focusing, Canon’s design keeps the front and rear optical groups fixed, while only the middle group moves to achieve focus. Because that focusing group is smaller and lighter, the autofocus motor has less glass to move, allowing it to react more quickly. This approach works especially well alongside Canon’s latest autofocus technologies, such as Voice Coil Motors (VCM) and Nano USM, both of which are already used in several RF lenses. Using fewer and smaller lens elements naturally also helps reduce the overall size and weight of the lens. Of course, lens design is always a balancing act, since changing one part of the optical formula affects everything from sharpness and distortion to chromatic aberration, balance, and cost.

The patent itself includes 21 different lens designs, showing how this three-group concept could be applied across a range of focal lengths. Among them are wide-angle primes such as 12mm f/1.2, 14mm f/2, 15mm f/1.4, and 16mm f/1.8. Whether any of these exact lenses ever make it to market is impossible to know, as patents often include concepts that never become real products.

The Latest Nikon Z7 III Rumours

Fresh rumours suggest Nikon may not have given up on the Z7 series after all. While many photographers had started to question whether a Nikon Z7 III would ever arrive, a new report claims the camera is indeed in development. According to a source with a mixed but sometimes accurate track record, Nikon is working on a successor to the Z7 II that could feature a sensor with a resolution somewhere between 56 and 61 megapixels. As always with early rumours, it is worth treating the information with some caution, especially since it has not yet been backed up by other well-known sources.

The Z6 III has now been on the market for more than two years, while the Z7 II dates all the way back to 2020. Ever since the Z6 III launched, there has been plenty of speculation about whether Nikon still planned to update its high-resolution sibling. According to the latest rumours, the answer could be yes. Along with the higher-resolution sensor, the Z7 III is also expected to receive a significantly improved autofocus system, which would be in line with the advances Nikon has made in recent generations of its mirrorless cameras. The rumoured 56-61MP resolution would also give landscape, studio, and commercial photographers considerably more detail to work with than the 45.7MP sensor found in the current Z7 II.

That said, the rumoured resolution does raise a question. A sensor with 60 megapixels or more would create a clearer separation between the Z7 III and Nikon’s 45.7MP Z8 and Z9, giving the company a dedicated high-resolution model meant primarily for still photographers. At the same time, recent rumours have also pointed to a new APS-C flagship, suggesting Nikon could be preparing several cameras that many people had assumed were no longer on the roadmap. For now, though, there is no official confirmation from Nikon, so it is best to file the Z7 III under “promising rumour” until more sources begin reporting the same info.

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