It seems like during every round of product releases over the past couple of years or so there have been rumors of a refreshed version of Canon’s popular 70-200mm f/2.8 IS and non-IS lenses.  Well, we may be in luck for a replacement soon.

Earlier this week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (”USPTO”) published a Canon patent application for the optical system of a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.  I saw no mention of the image stabilization in my brief skim of the patent; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that these optics (or at least one version of them) won’t have a stabilization system attached when the lens hits the market.  For those of you who want to subject yourself to the agony of reading a patent about a lens, you can find the full application for the 70-200mm lens on the USPTO site here.

Additionally, Canon has also applied for a patent recently on a 60mm f/2.8 IS macro lens.  Presumably, this would be a replacement for the current EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens.  The addition of image stabilization in the 60mm lens patent makes me wonder as to whether it will be the same Hybrid IS technology found in the recently introduced EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, which has received a warm welcome thanks to those improvements.  If you want to see the 60mm lens patent, it’s on the USPTO site here.

Hopefully, these products are just around the corner; however, just because Canon applied for the patent doesn’t mean we’ll see it anytime soon – or ever, for that matter.  Stay tuned for the latest updates.