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    Canon RF 30-600mm Super Zoom appears in Patent Application

    By Updated:42 Comments Canon Patents 2 Mins Read

    In this patent application (2024-152935), Canon is researching some RF-designed super zoom embodiments.

    For those dying on that hill where super crazy zooms do not need to exist, you can stop reading now ;)

    These full-frame super zoom lenses were well used on the EF mount, as professional news and media photographers would use this as one lens does it all because they simply didn’t have time to swap out camera lenses in the field. Canon last made this lens as the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM. Are we seeing Canon having an interest in moving this lens to the RF platform? It would make a lot of sense now that the EOS R1 is soon out.

    I’m not sure the optics rate an L, but the L would come with the weather sealing and construction. Any time you go above 4x on an optical zoom, you start to have a compromise on optical quality. So don’t expect miracles here. That said, a 20x full-frame zoom would be mind-blowing.

    Canon RF 30-600mm F4-8mm IS USM

    Focal length30.50 300.00 585.00
    F-number4.00 6.768.00
    Half angle (°)35.35 4.12 2.12
    Image height21.64 21.64 21.64
    Lens Length309.33 427.20 489.09  
    Back Focus29.33 69.05 102.45  

    As with all patent applications, this is a look into Canon’s research. These products are embodiments that Canon may or may not develop in the future.

    Japan Patent Application 2024-152935

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    42 comments

    2. You can get optically excellent superzooms from Canon, have a look at their broadcast lenses :)
      I was thinking exactly the same thing as I read this article. However, a 45mp stills image requires a far higher level of optical resolution compared to a lens optimised for 4K. Sure we have 8K now days, but this is relatively new.

      It's a very interesting lens, not my wheel house, but an interesting lens for sure.
    4. Okay, I'm not dying on that hill, but I doubt that I would be in the market for this lens. Nonetheless, if this lens managed to be even decent and not too humongous, and not too dark ;), it would be a great safari lens. Okay, that's not going to happen.
    5. You can get optically excellent superzooms from Canon, have a look at their broadcast lenses :)
      Looking at them is one thing, carrying them and affording them are quite different things.

      This lens is 47 cm/18.5” at full extension, that’s a beast, even if not quite so beastly as Canon’s box lenses.
    10. Well, Canon does have full frame RF 100-500, which is 5x zoom and it's bloody excellent! Obviously, 20x range would definitively require much more compromises, but if the image quality was at least acceptable, I'm sure it would sell well. To be honest, 30-600 is perhaps a bit too ambitious, but something along the lines of old EF 28-300 doesn't seem outside of realm of possibility.
    11. You can get optically excellent superzooms from Canon, have a look at their broadcast lenses :)
      Most super zooms/ field lenses are only designed to cover relatively tiny 2/3 sensors used in broadcast/ENG cameras. Full frame brings extra challenges especially at the wide end.
    13. Even with lower resolution sensors I was never a friend of those superzooms.
      Still too big and too much of a compromise in IQ performance.

      And now we have >20 MP sensors and not 8 MP.

      That was not my idea of a lens when I bought an ILC system.

      Still waiting for a 1-2000mm lens
      But it must be f/1.2 - if not f/1.0 ;)
    14. Looking at them is one thing, carrying them and affording them are quite different things.

      This lens is 47 cm/18.5” at full extension, that’s a beast, even if not quite so beastly as Canon’s box lenses.
      I was interested till I saw the length. This thing is as long as a 600 f4 at full extension and 2" longer than the 200-800! Same size as the 200-800 when retracted though. Doubt it would be lighter than 2kg as well. Not exactly a walk around lens.

      Perhaps for soccer moms/dads on game day or birders who can get close?

      If they made 30-600 f4-11 I think the size and weight would be more feasible as a walk around.
    15. It what universe is this a marketable lens? Sigma has a 150-600mm with a 95mm filter and f/6.3. I have one. It hasn't seen the light of day in years because we have other much better lenses at all of those focal lengths. Sigma also still sell the 50-500mm with an 86mm filter also offering f/6.3. These are walkabout vacation snapshot lenses.

      They cost roughly $1,100 and $550 respectively. What would someone pay for an f/8, non-L 600mm lens? I don't see it worth more than $995. Most people on this forum would never be in the market for this lens, and the hobbyist tier photographers would just buy a Sigma. Frankly, most of them cannot understand why we have any of the "L" or "big white" lenses anyway.

      Methinks this lens is a thought experiment that never sees first light.
    19. It's a patent. Only a very small fraction of optical formula patents become marketed lenses.
      Yup. That's exactly my conclusion in the final sentence I wrote. So I agree with you 100%.

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