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It was published only today, but Canon submitted its 135mm f/2 lens design (Japanese) back in September 2020. Four versions are shown, ranging from 11 elements to 14 elements.
The designs appear to sport pretty good image quality, going by the theoretical, calculated “sea grass” graphs that appear in Japanese lens design patents. A trip back to Canon’s most recent 135mm f/2 patent (2018) shows that these new ones compare favorably.
[Tip to lens geeks: Bill Claff’s Photonstophotos.net site incorporates a long list of lenses that he’s matched up with their corresponding patents, along with a mesmerizing ray tracing application that shows how light interacts with the patent design elements. Very handy.]
CanonRumor’s RF Lens Roadmap sports an f/1.4 version of a 135mm prime, not an f/2. Were Canon to produce an f/1.4 model, it would one-up the excellent Sony and Sigma f/1.8 lenses of that focal length.
Sigma dallied with a super-long f/1.4 design with its 105mm Art prime, a lens that caused some portraitists to start using a tripod. Canon’s designs are typically lighter than those of Sigma, but it’s hard to imagine a 135mm f/1.4 that weighs less than 3.5 pounds. The new 135 f/2 design looks to be sized similarly to the old EF mount model.
