Canon Patent Application: Active Dew suppressing mount adapter

We haven't been ignoring patents, there just hasn't been much to report on - I mean, I'm not going to show a Canon RF 24-105L F4 patent application here when the lens has been out for nearly 19 months.

This patent that we discovered today I think is pretty neat.

In Canon's continuous research into novel ways to cool a camera, this is similar to ones we have found in the past.  However, in this case, Canon's worried about the temperature difference between the lens, camera body and ambient temperature causing dew to form.  This is something that is a real concern during astrography, as an example.

In this patent, Canon uses a Peltier cooling device to actively change the temperature around the base of the lens.   

This lens adapter connects to a thermo conductive surface between the lens mount on the camera body to the surface area around the sensor to move heat away from the sensor. 

The camera body base portion 317 is a component that forms the skeleton of the camera body 3. The camera body mount section 318 is a component for fixing an imaging lens (not shown), and is fixed to the camera body base section 317. The camera body base portion 317 is formed of a material having a high thermal conductivity, such as an alloy containing aluminum, copper, magnesium or the like as a main component.

The mount region has thermal conductivity to the lens mount surface, so that the mount adapter can cool the lens mount.  I suspect what they are trying to do is equalize all the temperatures between camera, ambient and lens to prevent the formation of dew - and cool the sensor at the same time.

The heat conducting member 2111 is provided with a first contact surface 2111a that contacts one surface of the Peltier element 206 (second side surface 206b (see FIG. 7C)). Since the second side surface 206b of the Peltier element 206 and the first contact surface 2111a are physically in contact with each other and are connected so as to be able to transfer heat, the heat conduction member 2111 is heated or cooled according to the operation of the Peltier element 206. R. Further, the heat conducting member 2111 is provided with a second contact surface 2111b which is a contact portion with the back surface mount portion 213 and a third contact surface 2111c which is a contact portion with the front surface mount portion 207. . Therefore, the heat conducting member 2111 contacts both the front mount part 207 and the back mount part 213 to thermally couple the front mount part 207 and the back mount part 213. 

Would something like this ever make it into production? Well, probably not. But this would make a VERY interesting addition to the EOS Ra.

The images show an M50 styled EOS-M camera, but I think this is mostly for illustrative purposes only and not the intent of the patent application.  That being said, they are quite mechanically detailed.

Japan Patent Application 2020-079874