Canon Patent Application: Zoom lens for wearable devices

This is not your normal EF / RF lens patent, but one for a very small camera such as for wearable devices.

Unlike smartphones that use computational methods to zoom, this one is an actual zoom lens.

It has a zoom ratio of nearly 2x which is pretty impressive given that that's only around 7mm in total lens length.

The sensor size obviously has to be quite small, around a 3mm image height meaning it's around a 1/3" sensor size.  Focal length equivalence is around 30mm to 58mm.

This is a good illustration of Canon using some of its technical know-how in other fields for B2B applications.

From the Patent;

Recently, in an image pickup apparatus using an electronic image pickup element, prospectus to be incorporated in a wearable device, it has been demanded that an image pickup device is miniaturized optical system capable. Furthermore, in order to expand a photographing area, a configuration that can realize a compact zoom lens optical system is required. In addition, as the imaging apparatus is miniaturized, it is also required that the optical performance be excellent even when focusing on an object at a short distance. 

focal length        4.27   5.96   8.06 
F number            3.60   4.57   5.57
field angle        35.09  26.71  20.42 
image height        3.00   3.00   3.00 
lens total length   7.40   7.40   7.40 
BF                  0.50   0.50   0.50 

Japan Patent Application 2019061184

Yes! This Patent link works! Thanks to the friendly people at Japan's Patent Office, they showed me how to link patents.  From now one we'll be able to give you a direct link to the patent without having you search for them.  However, we still suggest you go through the manual steps if you really want to read the patent because that patent view is usually more detailed.