Canon Likes Patenting New Macros, Less So Making Them

Canon squeezed out yet another 100mm macro patent, this one interesting in that it has a 1.4x magnification, barely putting it into the “super-macro” category. The very well-regarded – and now 12 year old – EOS 100mm f/2.8 L IS lens is still arguably the best autofocus macro across systems, as many people adapt it to Sony, L-mount Alliance and other systems.

Canon has yet to release a true macro in RF mount, although some of its RF offerings have decent reproduction ratios, and a couple are even optimistically labeled “macro” by the Canon product managers that control their marketing drones.

Canon has pushed out a macro design patent roughly every quarter since the RF mount came into existence.

While the existing 100mm works about as it always has while when to the RF system, the now-spoiled R system users’ autofocus expectations are now significantly higher. The older macro lenses are not capable of confidently zeroing in on subjects, or tracking them with the sort of confidence R system shooters expect today.