{"id":599242,"date":"2026-08-20T14:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599242\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:40:16","slug":"is-canon-getting-into-the-smartphone-game-this-new-patent-application-has-raised-the-possibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599242\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Canon getting into the smartphone game? This new patent application has raised the possibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patent applications are always worth keeping an eye on for a hint of what might be coming down the pipeline from major manufacturers \u2013 and Canon<\/a> has just filed an interesting one.<\/p>\n

Patent JP 2026-132879 (P2026-132879A), just published by the Japanese Patent Office and reported by Japanese news outlet Asobinet<\/a>, was filed by Canon and includes multiple lenses with a diffractive optical system that are designed for use with very small sensors \u2013 the kinds of sensors that are used in camera phones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The three lenses themselves are listed as having focal lengths of 5.53mm, 6.79mm and 8.70mm, which on a smartphone sensor would work out to equivalent focal lengths of 45mm, 55mm and 70mm. The listed f-numbers for the three lenses are f\/2.5, f\/2.7 and f\/2.9 respectively.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromDigital Camera World<\/p>\n

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Diagrams of the 55mm and 45mm lenses (Image credit: Canon \/ Japanese Patent Office)<\/p>\n

Naturally, patenting the lenses could mean any number of things. Personally I doubt that Canon is about to start producing its own smartphones, but it could be that the manufacturer is planning on releasing standalone lens attachments for smartphones.<\/p>\n

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Alternatively \u2013 and personally I think this is most likely \u2013 it could be that Canon is partnering up with a smartphone manufacturer to lend its tech to a handset\u2019s camera module, the way that Leica<\/a> does with Xiaomi<\/a> phones like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra<\/a> and Hasselblad does with the Oppo Find X9 Ultra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Our own Gareth Bevan described the Oppo<\/a> in particular as one of the best camera systems he had ever used on a phone.<\/p>\n

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Canon’s 70mm f\/2.8 equivalent smartphone lens (Image credit: Canon \/ Japanese Patent Office)<\/p>\n

I\u2019d definitely be excited to see a smartphone come equipped with Canon camera tech \u2013 particularly if Canon\u2019s excellent color science also arrived as part of the package!<\/p>\n

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Like many tech companies, Canon files patent applications all the time \u2013 indeed, it has actually been the Japanese company that files the most patents for more than two decades<\/a> \u2013 and many of them never become released products.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on this one and will be interested to see whether anything more comes of it \u2013 after all, Canon has time and again shown itself to be a manufacturer that isn\u2019t afraid to take risks and try new things.<\/p>\n

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Check out our roundups of the best Canon cameras<\/a> and the best camera phones<\/a> \u2013 and who knows, maybe one day soon we will see some crossover between the two?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patent applications are always worth keeping an eye on for a hint of what might be coming down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":["post-599242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}