Tag Archives: Patents

Canon files a patent for a new 24-70mm F2.8L II USM lens

Canon applied for a patent in Japan for a new 24-70mm F2.8L II USM lens: For comparison, here is the diagram of the current Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens:

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Samsung’s patent for a liquid zoom lens

US patent 7725016 from Samsung is for a liquid zoom lens. The idea behind this patent is to reduce the size and power consumption of a conventional lens. This technology could potentially be used in mobile devices: “Consequently, the zoom camera of the disclosure has a disadvantage in that it requires a large space for the zoom […]

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Sony viewfinder patent shows new camera design

Patent Application 20100259666 from Sony is about a transmissive liquid crystal panel that could be implemented in the optical finder and can provide superimposed indication of various parameters, such as AF area: The patent includes also diagrams of what appears to be a Sony camera body:

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The latest patents applications

Olympus filed a patent application in Japan for a new 26-100mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.8-2.4 lens: Patent application: 2010-217478, filled on 03/17/2009 Focus length: 6.06-18.76 Fno: 1.85-2.39 (aperture) Angle of view: 78.41-27.50° Back focus: 7.33-9.19mm Length 60.49-62.17mm Zoom 3.88x Apple attempts to patent a smarter camera flash – the patent is about a flash redirector that will let […]

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Olympus patents

Olympus filed an interesting patent in Japan for removing water drops from a lens by using a vibrating front element: Here are another four patents applications for the following Olympus m4/3 lenses (also filed in Japan): M.Zuiko 17mm F2.8 (already available) M.Zuiko 20mm F2.8

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Canon patent for EF 28-70mm F2.8 USM lens

Not sure why Canon filed that patent two years ago, since the old Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 L USM lens was replaced by the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. The details: Patent Publication No. 2010-145831 published 2010/07/01 filled 2008/12/19 Embodiment 3 focus distance f=28.7-68.00mm Fno=2.92 angle of view 74.02-35.30 image circle 43.28mm lens length 177.91-168.98mm back […]

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Sony patents honeycomb image sensor

Sony filed a patent for a honeycomb type image sensor. The sensor’s photodiodes are shaped like hexagons (regular sensors have square photodiodes) which should improve the sensor’s performance. Few years ago Fuji worked on a honeycomb type “Super CCD” sensor. The Google translation is sufficient to get a basic idea about this patent: Patent Publication […]

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Olympus patent uses eye’s position and adjustable aspect ratio to frame pictures

The idea behind this patent filed by Olympus is that the photographer can easily adjust the aspect ratio of the viewfinder with an adjustable frame: In addition, the patent suggest an eye detection device on the back of the camera that will follow the photographer’s eyes (similar to the current blink-detection technology) and will make the […]

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Patents from Pentax and Canon

First in line are some Pentax patents of what appears to be three lenses with a Micro-Four-Thirds mount: Pentax-MFTS 17mm F2.8 AL Pentax-MFTS 17mm F2.0 AL Pentax-MFTS 14mm F2.8 AL And the drawings: The next patent is from Canon and is for a “Imaging-device cleaning apparatus” which has the shape of  a lens and attaches […]

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Two interesting patents from Sony and Canon

Update: I forgot that Canon also filed a patent for a touchscreen DSLR few months ago. The first patent is about a touchscreen DSLR from Sony: PhotographyBay has the whole story, here is a part of the patent application: The touch panel 332 functions as a touched position detector that detects the touched position where […]

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