12 lenses of Christmas: Canon launches a lens with super-fast speed at a barely believeable price

For each of the 12 days of Christmas, I’m revisiting a month’s worth of lenses that we covered on DCW. Today it's November 2025… check out the other 12 lenses of Christmas!

Think Canon f/1.2 primes and one of the first to spring to mind might be the chunky, heavyweight Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM, with its similarly hefty price tag of $2,599 / £2,449 / AU£3,261.

But in November, Canon rewrote its own rulebook by launching its first ever non-L-series f/1.2 prime lens – more a lens for the masses. It came in the comparatively dinky little shape of the Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM, which is not only super-fast for a standard prime lens, but also disarmingly inexpensive at $469 / £479 / AU$699.

Indeed, it seemed very much like Canon had been looking long and hard at what Chinese third-party brands were offering, and fighting back with its own alternative. And unlike independent full-frame RF lenses, this one comes complete with autofocus.

We had plenty more news for bargain hunters in November but there were also rumors of perhaps two new Sony FE 100-400mm lenses. There was talk of an FE 100-400mm f/4 G Master lens as an upgrade to Sony’s existing super-tele zoom, but with a constant f/4 aperture rather than a variable f/4.5-5.6 rating.

There might also be a downsized, more inexpensive option on the cards, with a slower f/5.6-6.3 aperture. Interesting times but we’d just have to wait and see.

Okay, back to the bargains… The 7Artisans AF 10mm f/2.8 APS-C format ultra-wide-angle prime that we reported on the previous month launched in November for Sony E, Fujifilm X and Nikon Z cameras, at the crazy knockdown price of $199 / £169.

Then there was the Meike 85mm F1.8 SE Mark II full-frame lens for Sony E, Nikon Z and L-mount cameras at just $229 / £229, again with autofocus and even a USB-C socket in its metal mounting plate for applying firmware updates.

Don’t feel the need for autofocus? The Brightin Star MF 50mm f/0.95 II landed for Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF and L-mount cameras, at the exceptionally low price of $369 / £339 (at least for such an ultra-fast prime lens).

And there’s more! Like the Brightin Star lens I’ve just mentioned, a new Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar 28mm f/2 Aspherical lens was announced for Sony E and Nikon Z full-frame cameras, aiming to blend classic design principles and retro styling with cutting-edge performance.

Again it’s a manual focus lens, but it does feature electronics to enable lens-based EXIF data to be recorded as well as in-body image stabilization without the need to manually dial in the lens’ statistics. However, this isn’t a low-budget lens, and would later go on sale for around $1,149 / £799.

The same applied to a new tilt-shift lens from Venus Optics, the Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt-Shift 0.5x Macro. Available for both full-frame and medium-format cameras, it launched in Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF and L-mount, as well as Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad XCD, at a price of $1,249 / £1,269.

Back on the bargain hunt, there was a Viltrox 2x teleconverter for Sony E-mount cameras. And guess what – at $280 / $250, it’s only about half the price of own-brand Sony SEL14TC and SEL20TC teleconverters.

Our full-test reviews in November confirmed that the new Nikon Z DX MC 35mm f/1.7 and Nikon Z DX 16-50mm f/2.8 VR APS-C format lenses were all that we hoped they would be, earning big-score ratings and being highly recommended.

We were also pretty blown away by the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS, an absolute humdinger of a macro prime.

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Looking for more best-in-class glass? Take a look at the best Canon RF lenses, the best Nikon Z lenses, the best Sony lenses all for full-frame and APS-C bodies. For crop sensor cameras, check out the best Fujifilm lenses and the best Micro Four Thirds lenses. And for medium format, these are the best Fujifilm GF lenses and the best Hasselblad lenses.