Canon EOS Lens

Canon is a Japanese multinational corporation that was founded in the year 1937. The company is known across the globe for its range of imaging and optical products, including cameras, lenses, photocopiers and computer printers.

Currently, among the company’s well-known products is the Canon EOS (Electro-Optical System) range of SLR cameras. The Canon EOS camera range was introduced in the year 1989. An interesting trivia is that the acronym "EOS" was chosen for Eos, the Titan Goddess of dawn in Greek mythology.

The EOS range of cameras use lenses belonging to the Canon EF and the Canon EF S series. The "EF" in the EF and EF-S Canon EOS lenses stands for "Electro-Focus", which is derived from the fact that the automatic focusing in these Canon EOS lenses is done by a dedicated in-built electric motor. In other words, Canon EOS lenses do not contain any mechanical levers or controls.

The EF series Canon EOS lenses also adhere to a loosely specific nomenclature. For example, the EF series Cannon EOS lenses that come equipped with an image stabilizer have an "IS" attached to their name. Similarly, the EF series Canon EOS lenses that come equipped with Canon’s ultrasonic motors have a "USM" attached to their name; these are sometimes casually to as "Canon USM lenses". In much the same way, Canon EF lenses that feature both an image stabilizer and ultrasonic motor are colloquially referred to as "Canon EF IS USM lenses".

Canon has relatively recently launched a new range of lenses, the Canon EF-S series. The Canon EFS lens range is derived from the EF series Canon EOS lenses, and has been specifically designed for Canon digital single-lens reflex cameras with APS-C sized image sensors. Note that Canon EF-S cameras are compatible with Canon EF lenses. The "S" in EF-S stands for "short back focus" in other words, the rear element of the lens is much closer to the image sensor than in regular 35 mm SLR cameras. This broadens the options for wide angle and very wide angle lens; this enables further miniaturization allows the lens to be made smaller, faster, lighter and cheaper. It must be noted that most of the lenses in the EF-S series Canon EOS lens range are wide angle lenses.

The Canon EOS lenses are also categorized on the basis of their type into fixed tilt-and-shift lenses, image stabilizer-equipped lenses, focal length lenses, macro lenses, zoom lenses and extenders. Some of the features found in Canon EOS lenses include the lens mount index, focusing ring, zoom ring, autofocus stop buttons, focus preset, filter mounting, image stabilizer switch, distance scale window, focus mode switch, focusing distance range limiter switch (found in Canon macro lenses and most focal length lenses with longer focal lengths), etc.

One can find used and second-hand Canon camera lenses, especially Canon SLR lenses such as Canon 300mm lenses, in many online trading and shopping sites. One can also buy other accessories such as Canon lens heeds, Canon camera cases, Canon lens covers, etc from these sites.