Canon to Unveil a Lens Feature Called Defocus Smoothing (DS)

Canon is apparently getting ready to introduce a new lens technology to the world. It’s called “defocus smoothing,” and it’ll appear as a DS feature abbreviation on future lenses.

Canon will reportedly be unveiling at least 6 different new RF full-frame mirrorless cameras on February 14th. Here’s the list that Canon Rumors is hearing:

  • Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM
  • Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM
  • Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM
  • Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
  • Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM
  • Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS

As you can see, there are two different 85mm f/1.2L lenses on the way, one with a mysterious “DS” feature and one without.

Nokishita just found that Canon has trademarked “Defocus Smoothing”, filing for the trademark in May 2018. The trademark applies to:

Camera lenses; lenses for digital cameras; lenses for video cameras; lenses for digital video cameras; lenses for motion-picture cameras; cameras; digital cameras; video cameras; digital video cameras; operating and image processing computer software for digital cameras; operating and image processing computer software for digital video cameras; computer software for capturing images and moving images; computer software for producing, editing, and processing image data and moving image data; computer software for converting, operating, and displaying image data and moving image data

While it’s unclear what defocus smoothing will do, Canon Rumors is guessing that DS lenses will have improved out of focus areas, or “bokeh.”

“There have been a lot of patents over the last few years for Canon lenses with apodization filters, which could be related to the Defocus Smoothing we’re seeing here,” Canon Rumors writes.

The existing Canon 85mm f/1.2L II is already a lens that’s prized for its bokeh, so any improvement on the bokeh of an 85mm f/1.2 will certainly be something to behold.

A sample photo showing the bokeh produced by the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II. Photo by Heng Fu Ming and licensed under CC BY 2.0.

An official announcement of Defocus Smoothing technology should land on Thursday, so stay tuned!

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