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Canon’s RF/EF lens production exceeds 170 million units, extending its world record in interchangeable lens production

TOKYO, October 22, 2025—Canon Inc. announced today that, in October 2025, Canon reached a historic milestone of producing a cumulative total of 170 million RF and EF interchangeable lenses for its EOS series, extending its world record¹ for the highest number of interchangeable camera lenses ever produced.

The EF lens was introduced in 1987 as the dedicated lens system for Canon’s EOS autofocus single-lens reflex film camera, debuting simultaneously with the EOS system itself. Since their inception, EF lenses have led the industry by incorporating a series of world-first² technologies, including the Ultrasonic Motor (USM), Image Stabilizer (IS) technology, and a multilayered Diffractive Optical (DO) element, and have undergone numerous evolutions.

In 2018, Canon launched the RF lens series, designed for the EOS R mirrorless camera system, which features a large aperture, short back focus, and high-speed communication system to deliver even higher image quality. The RF and EF lens series lineup now includes a total of 108 models³, covering a wide range of focal lengths⁴ from ultra-wide 10mm to super-telephoto 1200mm. The series also includes the world’s first VR lens⁵, lenses with built-in power zoom suited for video shooting, and even those compatible with power zoom adapters—expanding the scope of creative expression and meeting the diverse needs of users for both still photography and video.

EF lens production began at Canon’s Utsunomiya Plant in 1987. Since then, both EF and RF lenses have gained strong support from a wide range of users—from beginners to professionals—leading to steady growth in production volume. Today, Canon manufactures lenses at five sites: Utsunomiya Plant; Canon Inc., Taiwan; Canon Opto (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.; Oita Canon Inc.; and Miyazaki Canon Inc. Milestones include 10 million units produced by 1995 and 50 million by 2009. Then in 2014, Canon became the first company in the world to reach 100 million interchangeable camera lenses produced. In October 2025, the company reached 170 million units, leading to the achievement of this world record. The 170 millionth lens produced was the RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z.

Canon has maintained the No.1⁶ global market share for digital interchangeable-lens cameras for 22 consecutive years since 2003. Moving forward, Canon will continue to refine its proprietary imaging technologies and further strengthen and expand its lens lineup, pioneering new imaging possibilities and contributing to the continued evolution of photographic and video culture.

• 1

  Includes EF, EF-S, EF-M, EF Cinema, RF, RF-S, and RF Cinema lenses and extenders. As of October 21, 2025 (according to a survey by Canon)

• 2

  Among SLR cameras (according to a survey by Canon)

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  Number of products sold as of October 22, 2025 (including extenders). The number of lens models for sale is different according to
  market figures.

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  Focal length is 5.2mm to 1200mm when including VR lenses

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  An interchangeable digital camera lens that enables VR footage with a single camera. Among interchangeable lens digital cameras released as of October 5, 2021 (according to a survey by Canon)

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  Refers to unit share (according to a survey by Canon)

Highlights in the development of the RF/EF Lens Series

The EF lens, which was introduced alongside EOS in March 1987, has adopted a variety of world-first technologies, including Image Stabilizer (IS) technology, featured in the EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM released in 1995; a multilayered Diffractive Optical (DO) element, used in the EF400mm f/4 DO IS USM launched in 2001; and Subwavelength Structure Coating (SWC)⁷, applied to the EF24mm f/1.4L II USM released in 2008.

In 2021, Canon launched the EOS VR System, a VR video system consisting of a mirrorless camera⁸, dedicated lens, and PC software, thereby creating a 3D 180° VR video through an interchangeable lens camera. In 2024, Canon began rolling out a new series of hybrid lenses equipped with iris rings, designed to meet the needs of both still photography and professional video production. For zoom lenses, the company has also launched RF24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z and RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z which are compatible with power zoom adapters. For single focus lenses, the company released F1.4 L hybrid prime lens series that unified the size and ring and button position across models. In September 2025, Canon launched RF85mm F1.4 L VCM, the fifth model in this series, demonstrating that it can meet demands in line with the changing times.

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  A special coating with advanced anti-reflective properties

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  For applicable cameras, please visit the official Canon website.

Gold drew attention during LME Week, with prices up by around 60% this year. The rally has been driven by uncertainties over global trade, heightened geopolitical tensions, US fiscal stability and the Fed’s independence. The start of the Fed’s easing cycle also boosted gold, which doesn’t pay any interest. The rally has been driven by physical buying, with central banks and private investors accumulating gold at record volumes.

But after a weeks-long rally that saw the precious metal hitting successive record highs, gold slid the most in 12 years this week. This signalled that some momentum might have been stretched. Gold was dragged down by a combination of factors, including profit-taking across precious metals, easing seasonal demand from Diwali, positive trade talks between China and the US, uncertainty over investor positions amid the US government shutdown, and a stronger dollar. The pullback underscores the risk that the rally might have moved ahead of underlying fundamentals.

But despite this sharp pullback, gold’s outlook remains constructive, underpinned by macro uncertainty and diversification demand.

The shift in central banks’ purchases has been structural, with the pace of buying doubling in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Central banks’ appetite for gold is driven by concerns from countries about Russian-style sanctions on their foreign assets, as well as shifting strategies on currency reserves. The top year-to-date buyer has been the National Bank of Poland, and it just announced it aims to increase its reserves from 21% to 30%.

ETFs have been another powerful force behind gold’s record-breaking rally this year, with holdings surging in recent weeks. In fact, gold ETFs have added as much gold in September alone as central banks did during the first quarter of this year combined, according to the World Gold Council. With ETF holdings still shy of a peak hit in 2022, there could be room for further increases.

The downside should be limited, supported by geopolitical concerns, sustained central bank demand and expectations of further monetary easing, although near-term volatility may persist. For now, gold’s pullback looks like a healthy correction within a still-positive trend.

Ground-breaking design, outstanding performance

As the first-ever three-row SUV in the IONIQ lineup, the IONIQ 9 left a lasting impression during its global debut in Los Angeles. Guests and members of the international press were immediately impressed by the IONIQ 9’s aerodynamic design, commanding presence, and outstanding electric performance.

The IONIQ 9 breaks boundaries in many ways: exterior design elements, such as its sleek silhouette, tapered boat-tail form, and smooth, single-curved roofline, demonstrate a new aerodynamic architecture and bold design step. But where the concept of bringing people together is most on display is IONIQ 9’s cozy and interaction-enhancing interior. Once inside, both drivers and passengers are greeted with a roomy, harmonious space that feels more like a luxurious lounge than a car cockpit. Soothing colors, innovative materials, and ride-enhancing technology come together to create a unique atmosphere that people want to interact in.

Imagine you’re at the grocery store, standing before a selection of snacks. Seemingly without thinking, you skip over the rice crackers to pick out a bag of chips.

These types of choices are called dietary decisions. It’s how we consider many different aspects of a food – including tastiness, healthiness and price – in order to decide what to buy and what to eat.

It’s not well understood how our brains use all these different bits of information when making food choices. When does information about each aspect of the food become available to our brains to consider? That’s what we set out to investigate.

In our new paper published in the journal Appetite, we show how, just hundreds of milliseconds after we have seen a food, many different attributes are reflected in brain activity. This happens extremely fast, long before a person can consciously decide whether or not to buy or eat the food.

Peering inside the brain

Naturally, how fast our brains process the different aspects of foods will affect our dietary decisions.

For example, studies have reported that we may process how tasty we find a food more quickly than how healthy it is. This quirk can bias our choices toward foods that taste better over those that are healthier. Junk foods – tasty but not necessarily good for us – have an edge here.

To investigate how quickly we process different aspects of foods, we used electroencephalography, a method that allows us to record electrical brain activity with millisecond precision.

We recorded people’s brain activity while showing them images of various foods, such as snack items, meats, fruits and sweets. We also asked people to rate each food on many different aspects, such as healthiness, tastiness, calorie content, familiarity, and how much they would like to eat the food.

We then used machine learning techniques to compare patterns of brain activity (how different the brain responses were to different food items) with the patterns of ratings (how differently those foods were rated).

This allowed us to test whether foods that had the largest differences in ratings also had the largest differences in brain activity. In other words – was information about food attributes actually reflected in people’s brain activity?

As it turned out, it was.

Information about different aspects of foods, such as healthiness, calorie content and familiarity, were reflected in the brain activity as early as 200 milliseconds after the food image was presented on the screen.

These rapid brain responses occurred before people could be consciously aware of the food they were seeing. Other aspects of foods, such as tastiness and willingness to eat the food, were reflected in the brain activity slightly later.

Choosing before choosing

These findings suggest that various aspects of foods may grab our attention early and help guide our dietary decisions. The brain assesses many different aspects of foods automatically and with similar timing, shaping our food choices before we’re even aware of them.

Surprisingly, we found that the healthiness of foods was represented in the brain activity earlier than tastiness. While this contradicted some previous findings, our machine learning techniques may have been more sensitive to detect subtle patterns of brain activity associated with each attribute.

There were also similarities in the way people judged different aspects of a food. For example, foods that were less familiar were also rated as being less tasty.

From these patterns of similarity, we identified two key food dimensions that may be particularly important when our brains evaluate foods. The first one is the “processed” dimension: how natural or processed a food is. The second is the “appetising” dimension, which taps into how tasty and familiar we find a food.

Both were reflected in patterns of brain activity very rapidly, about 200ms after seeing a food item.

There’s more than the eye can see

Our findings are most relevant to situations where we only rely on the visual features of foods, such as when ordering groceries or meals online, or using a picture menu at a restaurant. They shed light on how people make snap judgements at the supermarket or on food delivery apps.

Our brain imaging approach can also be used to test if certain strategies, such as deliberately focusing on the healthiness of foods, might change how foods are rapidly appraised and help us improve our choices.

While we used food images in this study, other senses are also important for dietary decisions. Smelling a mango or hearing the sizzle of a frying burger patty are likely processed quickly by the brain as well.

The next step will be to look into these other sensory features of foods, to see how the brain processes not just images of food, but the real deal when placed in front of us.