Close Menu

    Patent Application: Automatic Tilt Shift Enhancements

    By Updated:17 Comments Canon Patents 2 Mins Read

    In a long list of related patent applications, we have yet another patent application (2024-157119) one that deals with Canon’s ever-growing body of research into automatically controlled and camera-adjusted tilt-shift lenses. Sooner or later these things will come out because, at this stage, research continuing across multiple years and not coming out would be a strange way to waste money.

    In case you haven’t been following along, these new tilt-shift lenses will allow a plethora of unheard-of functions, including being suitable for handheld operations, autofocus, and automatically adjusting the tilt to deliver the depth of focus necessary to achieve focus on the items you have selected.

    In this patent application, Canon is exploring ways to optimize the user interface and the user experience when setting the tilt with the aperture setting (focusing range in machine translation).

    Of the two mechanisms, tilt is the most difficult for users to wrap their minds around. Shift is simply perspective, while tilt changes the plane of focus orientation which is more difficult to perceive.

    it is difficult to intuitively know how to move the imaging optical system to change the focus range, and it is necessary to move the optical system once, check the change in the focus range, and then change it to the desired focus range. 

    An object of the present invention is to provide a lens device capable of changing the focus range with a simple operation.

    I think what’s important to note is that the hardware has been settled many many many many patent applications ago. Now, Canon is simply fine-tuning the user experience and making this easily the best tilt-shift lens/camera combination.

    But as with all patent applications, this is a look into Canon’s research, and marketing is a funny thing, plans can change – so even with all this research, Canon may still pull the plug and go, yeah, naw, not going to do that.

    We can hope though.

    Japan Patent Application 2024-157119

    When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.

    Go to discussion...

    17 comments

    1. I am very satisfied with my TS-E 24mm f/3.5II. However, these new tilt/shift developments are great improvements that simplify the use of the tilt/shift a lot. I think it will be accompanied by a significant price increase. I believe that is why I will continue to hold on to my TS-E for a while
    2. I think Canon will rake it in if they can make TS self adjusting enough for video. Would be very interesting to see foot zoom video with keystoning and racking through the tilt to get to subject.
    3. I am very satisfied with my TS-E 24mm f/3.5II. However, these new tilt/shift developments are great improvements that simplify the use of the tilt/shift a lot. I think it will be accompanied by a significant price increase. I believe that is why I will continue to hold on to my TS-E for a while
      I currently have the 17, 24 and 90 mm TS lenses. The concept of tilt and its application are actually quite simple and easy to understand and use. Making this function “easier and more automatic” seems to me to be foolish. If a person is unable to grasp how to properly use this function, given that he or she reads maybe three paragraphs and sees two illustrations about it, then that person is unlikely to actually need to use this function. I guess this is the natural outcome of the current cohort of “advanced” amateur and newbie professionals in the digital age. In my older generation of higher end working professionals who grew up with film, almost all of us had to learn how to use “view” cameras which had full front and back standard movements. Of course, the TS lens functions are merely slightly constrained versions of view camera front standard movements, so understanding how to use TS lenses was a given for a real advanced amateur or professional at that time. Although this is not a perfect analogy, due to human speed and reflex limitations, as goes focus, so goes the TS function - camera makers want to reduce the requirements of human skill sets from the ability to create better images. I guess this could be viewed as “dumbing down” the process by some, or perhaps “democratizing” access to image making by others. Eventually of course, this trend is leading to un-manned network photography and, finally, AI image making which will require absolutely no photo skills whatsoever. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether this trend is a good or bad one, but it certainly veers away from the original ethos of photography by photographers.
    5. There's one thing that's been missed in this story. With all of this costly research, Canon's going to need to charge $10,000 per lens to recoup its investment.
      So your point is that they shouldn't do research? And then people complain that they're boring, and not innovating etc etc etc ...
    6. I did this one handheld. Far from perfect. But pretty good considering it’s the Canon FD 35mm T/S adapted onto an R6 in some pretty high wind. That IBIS really pays off.

      I’d definitely buy some crazy RF mount autofocus T/S if they make it though.
    7. I currently have the 17, 24 and 90 mm TS lenses. The concept of tilt and its application are actually quite simple and easy to understand and use. Making this function “easier and more automatic” seems to me to be foolish. If a person is unable to grasp how to properly use this function, given that he or she reads maybe three paragraphs and sees two illustrations about it, then that person is unlikely to actually need to use this function. I guess this is the natural outcome of the current cohort of “advanced” amateur and newbie professionals in the digital age. In my older generation of higher end working professionals who grew up with film, almost all of us had to learn how to use “view” cameras which had full front and back standard movements. Of course, the TS lens functions are merely slightly constrained versions of view camera front standard movements, so understanding how to use TS lenses was a given for a real advanced amateur or professional at that time. Although this is not a perfect analogy, due to human speed and reflex limitations, as goes focus, so goes the TS function - camera makers want to reduce the requirements of human skill sets from the ability to create better images. I guess this could be viewed as “dumbing down” the process by some, or perhaps “democratizing” access to image making by others. Eventually of course, this trend is leading to un-manned network photography and, finally, AI image making which will require absolutely no photo skills whatsoever. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether this trend is a good or bad one, but it certainly veers away from the original ethos of photography by photographers.
      Can you adjust tilt and focus at the same time and fast enough to keep up with unpredictable subjects?
    8. Can you adjust tilt and focus at the same time and fast enough to keep up with unpredictable subjects?
      His cohort also manages exposure and re-silvers the glass plates in real time. Film, digital and other new fangled things are only there to dumb down the process!

      It only took till post #4 for a gatekeeper to show up, albeit a more polite version than we usually get.
    9. I predict that if Canon releases this automated tilt shift thing, they won’t implement the automatic DoF algo for regular lenses. A ‘keep all the faces you detected in focus’ mode like DSLRs and the 90D had would be nice for self-timer family portraits.
    10. There are two dimensions in which this new automation tech can be exploited:
      1) Make things simpler so more people can use tilt/shift
      2) Make tilt/shift more capable, by automating the selection of the settings so that people doing set piece shots right now and run-and-gun with it. For instance, macro photographers selecting their focal planes.

      I see a lot of value in both. I disagree with Dafrank that it's not useful for current users. I've tried to use my T/S lenses for semi-macro purposes in the past, as having deeper focal planes were more critical than magnification, but it was just too much of a hassle when taking many different compositions.

      I also disagree with regarding the ease with which people can understand it how tilt/shift works. My day job is making software that deals with parabolic curve fitting. That's one of the reasons I was interested in tilt/shift. A while back, I was trying to make a table of tilt shift settings values for Canon lenses that went to an additional decimal point in anticipation of more precise lenses coming out (instead, we've gotten more patent filings). It was my excuse to get into it and totally grok how it worked. I would estimate that of the 30 percent of people capable of understanding how it really works, roughly 10 percent of those would have the patience to bother learning it without someone putting a gun to their heads.

      I suspect from Canon's perspective, putting automation into it likely will multiply its sales of T/S lenses. I can't wait for them to come out - which has been true for a bunch of years now.
    11. There are two dimensions in which this new automation tech can be exploited:
      1) Make things simpler so more people can use tilt/shift
      2) Make tilt/shift more capable, by automating the selection of the settings so that people doing set piece shots right now and run-and-gun with it. For instance, macro photographers selecting their focal planes.

      I see a lot of value in both. I disagree with Dafrank that it's not useful for current users. I've tried to use my T/S lenses for semi-macro purposes in the past, as having deeper focal planes were more critical than magnification, but it was just too much of a hassle when taking many different compositions.

      I also disagree with regarding the ease with which people can understand it how tilt/shift works. My day job is making software that deals with parabolic curve fitting. That's one of the reasons I was interested in tilt/shift. A while back, I was trying to make a table of tilt shift settings values for Canon lenses that went to an additional decimal point in anticipation of more precise lenses coming out (instead, we've gotten more patent filings). It was my excuse to get into it and totally grok how it worked. I would estimate that of the 30 percent of people capable of understanding how it really works, roughly 10 percent of those would have the patience to bother learning it without someone putting a gun to their heads.

      I suspect from Canon's perspective, putting automation into it likely will multiply its sales of T/S lenses. I can't wait for them to come out - which has been true for a bunch of years now.
      At minimum, the automation will get more attention than the typical new lens announcements.
    12. Help me out understanding the use cases for tilt shift....
      17mm / 24mm for shift for architecture/real estate and landscape (mountains etc)
      90mm for macro/close up product using tilt and shift eg watches etc.
      What would you use 50mm for?
      f2.8/f3.5/f4 ie wide aperture would seem not to be needed for use cases above ie max depth of field would be more important wth focus stacking.
    13. Help me out understanding the use cases for tilt shift....
      17mm / 24mm for shift for architecture/real estate and landscape (mountains etc)
      90mm for macro/close up product using tilt and shift eg watches etc.
      What would you use 50mm for?
      f2.8/f3.5/f4 ie wide aperture would seem not to be needed for use cases above ie max depth of field would be more important wth focus stacking.

      I have the older EF set. I find that in looking back on my own usage, about half of the time I needed one, it was an unanticipatable use case. Essentially, weird focus planes can be needed in all sorts of situations, but no one of them quite makes a general "use case."
      Specifically to your question, here are some uses where I absolutely needed the 45mm t/s...

      - Photographing recycled flooring wood grain on a (dirty) bathroom floor for a forestry magazine
      - Catching wading birds on a mudflat from across a creek using a remote trigger, unable to slew the camera
      - Catching burrowing bees coming in and out of their holes in sandy ground

      In all of those cases the wider or more telephoto versions wouldn't work well. If you were to generalize the 50's use case (for me), I'd say it was needed for capturing unpredictable live subjects that can be attracted to a specific focal plane. I use it enough that when I take my larger camera case traveling somewhere, I take the 45mm as one of the lenses, but leave behind the wider and narrower focal lengths.
    14. I have the older EF set. I find that in looking back on my own usage, about half of the time I needed one, it was an unanticipatable use case. Essentially, weird focus planes can be needed in all sorts of situations, but no one of them quite makes a general "use case."
      Specifically to your question, here are some uses where I absolutely needed the 45mm t/s...

      - Photographing recycled flooring wood grain on a (dirty) bathroom floor for a forestry magazine
      - Catching wading birds on a mudflat from across a creek using a remote trigger, unable to slew the camera
      - Catching burrowing bees coming in and out of their holes in sandy ground

      In all of those cases the wider or more telephoto versions wouldn't work well. If you were to generalize the 50's use case (for me), I'd say it was needed for capturing unpredictable live subjects that can be attracted to a specific focal plane. I use it enough that when I take my larger camera case traveling somewhere, I take the 45mm as one of the lenses, but leave behind the wider and narrower focal lengths.
      Do you choose the 45 over 50 for the slightly wider focal length, lower weight or something else?
    15. Can you adjust tilt and focus at the same time and fast enough to keep up with unpredictable subjects?
      If you buy a TS lens for fast moving subjects, you are not only very unique among purchasers, but you are buying a class of lens that is purely the wrong choice for those kinds of subjects, like buying an 800mm f/5.6 lens to shoot tabletop shots of jewelry. TS was designed to be a solution for difficult focusing issues in more contemplative technical and architectural work which don't require fast focusing, in order to replicate the slow and deliberate use of the front standard movements of a monorail view camera, . If you want to keep up with unpredictable subjects, buy fast prime and zoom lenses, not TS lenses. Buildings and product shot subjects don't move at all, predictably or not, except perhaps in an earthquake. On the other hand, if you want to buy such an "automated" TS lens, perhaps for the sake of novelty and GAS satisfaction, have at it; I'm sure you can have some fun with it. But for serious professionals, automation of TS functions will be expensive, superfluous and unnecessary. YMMV.
    16. If you buy a TS lens for fast moving subjects, you are not only very unique among purchasers, but you are buying a class of lens that is purely the wrong choice for those kinds of subjects, like buying an 800mm f/5.6 lens to shoot tabletop shots of jewelry. TS was designed to be a solution for difficult focusing issues in more contemplative technical and architectural work which don't require fast focusing, in order to replicate the slow and deliberate use of the front standard movements of a monorail view camera, . If you want to keep up with unpredictable subjects, buy fast prime and zoom lenses, not TS lenses. Buildings and product shot subjects don't move at all, predictably or not, except perhaps in an earthquake. On the other hand, if you want to buy such an "automated" TS lens, perhaps for the sake of novelty and GAS satisfaction, have at it; I'm sure you can have some fun with it. But for serious professionals, automation of TS functions will be expensive, superfluous and unnecessary. YMMV.
      So now do you understand why having autofocus and automated tilt shift could do something new?
    17. On the other hand, if you want to buy such an "automated" TS lens, perhaps for the sake of novelty and GAS satisfaction, have at it; I'm sure you can have some fun with it. But for serious professionals, automation of TS functions will be expensive, superfluous and unnecessary. YMMV.
      Thanks for being a gatekeeper, we really need helpful people like you to tell us what serious professionals need and what amateurs with money can waste it on. Well done!

    Leave a comment

    Please log in to your forum account to comment