Canon Patent Applicaton: DO Supertelephoto with Built-In Extender

The EF 400DOII is my favourite ’big white’ of all time. Hand holdable all day, pairs extremely well with TCs, and the reason I sold the 200-400 and the 500/4. I still use it adapted to RF - my last EF lens - and I won’t part with it till there is an RF equivalent. The only thing I never understood about the DO formula is why Canon didn’t make use of it in more lenses. I’m very happy to see this even if it is just at the patent stage.
The EF 400 DOII is also my favorite tele prime lens. Great image quality and a portable size make it an almost perfect lens for wildlife photography. Also with the EF teleconverters MkIII (1.4x and 2x) sharpness remains at excellent levels. Thus, I can hardly imagine a significant improvement in image quality with a new RF version. A built in teleconverter together with a weight (and size?) reduction could make the new version very attractive, provided the price tag will not be too high (hopefully max. about the same as the EF version).
 
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I think it's ironic that Canon were the first to put image stabilisers in their super whites. the first to paint them white too. The first to do the flippy 1.4x TC, the first to use diffractive optics, the first on so many fronts. I think they invented the 400mm f2.8, 500mm f4 and 600mm f4 too. But these days, they seem a little complacent and Nikon have a lot more 400/500/600mm offering. Some with flippy TC's and others with DO elements.
Actually, Minolta beat Canon to painting lenses white. And Sony bought out Minolta so Sony has some claim to white lenses. ;)
 
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Actually, Minolta beat Canon to painting lenses white.
I do not think that is correct. The first Canon big white lens for photography was the FD 600mm f 4.5 from 1976 (see : https://global.canon/en/c-museum/product/fd184.html).

In 1960 Canon had white broadcast camera lenses.
Source: https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/stories/canon-white-lenses/

Minolta started using white for its lenses in the 1980’s.
Source: https://www.mhohner.de/sony-minolta/lenses.php?ov=1
 
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