Canon Celebrates New Milestone

Canon has announced that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of its FD 55 mm f/1.2AL (released in 1971), the company’s first lens for interchangeable-lens SLR cameras that employs an aspherical lens element.

Aspherical lens elements are not only used in the company’s interchangeablelens SLR cameras, but also broadcast lenses, semiconductor lithography systems, telescope mirrors and a wide variety of optical products. To massproduce aspherical lenses, Canon reportedly needed a processing technology that was precise to within less than 0.1 micrometres, as well as high-precision measuring devices that could measure to within 0.01 micrometres. In March 1971, Canon’s first interchangeable-lens SLR camera employing an aspherical lens was released, the FD 55 mm f/1.2AL. Then, in 1973, Canon developed the ALG-Z nanometre level ultra-highprecision aspherical lens grinder and in 1985, the company implemented the large-diameter glass mould (GMo) aspherical lens element into the ‘New FD 35-105 mm f/3.5-4.5’ (released in December 1985). Canon reports that it will continue to polish its optical technologies in order to create products and technologies that help meet the customers’ wideranging needs.