This week, Canon announced that the company has reached two major production milestones—a cumulative total of 110 million EOS Series interchangeable-lens cameras in March and 160 million RF/EF series interchangeable lenses in May.
An EOS R6 Mark II was the 110 millionth EOS series camera produced, while an RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM became the Company's 160 millionth interchangeable lens.
In March 1987, Canon debuted the EOS system with the launch of the EOS 650 camera. It was the world's first electronic mount system that eschewed mechanical linkages for electronic contacts. This meant that aperture and focus were controlled electronically, with motors being located within the lens itself.
EOS is one of the world's more interesting 'reverse-engineered' acronyms. It not only stands for Electro Optical System, but is also the Greek goddess of dawn.
Lens technology in regards to: aberration minimisation; focus speed and accuracy; as well as image stabilisation have come an incredibly long way since 1987. Computer aided design and the near perfection of micro manufacturing technologies means that we no longer really have to stop down two stops to find a lenses 'sweet spot'. Modern lenses are now extremely sharp 'wide open' and focussing technologies enable us to shoot accurately with very shallow depth of field in poor lighting conditions.
The Canon brand has been around since the 1930's under various company names, and is now one of the big three market dominating brands which includes Sony and Nikon. Indeed, Canon purportedly has over 40% of the market share alone, which is over double that of the nearest competitor – Sony.
You can read more from the official Canon press release here.
Watch an in-depth video on how Canon lenses are created here.