12 lenses of Christmas: China comes knocking on the door with a boatload of budget camera lenses

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 May 2025… check out the other 12 lenses of Christmas!

Edging in for a slice of the pie, and a variably thin or thick slice at that, the TTArtisan 35mm f/1.4 Tilt lens was announced, enabling perspective control with narrow or wide depths of field.

The APS-C format lens is a typically manual affair, available in a choice of Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z and Sony E mount options, as well as Micro Four Thirds, at the unfeasibly low price of just $169 / £127 / AU$263. It therefore offers a relatively cheap way of trying your hand at ‘tilt’ photography.

If you fancy something more mainstream, with autofocus and a regular perspective, there was also news of the new silver edition of the APS-C format TTArtisan AF 35mm f/1.8 II for Fujifilm X and Nikon Z cameras, for around $128 / £125. Same manufacturer, similar low price.

Tilt lenses can certainly give you a distinctive and creative look, but so can the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 0.5x Macro – also announced in May. This lens is ideal for getting in super-close to your subject while also squeezing a large portion of the background into the frame, to set the scene.

You can usually rely on Laowa to come up with something a bit different, as demonstrated by this full-frame compatible lens for various DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, launching at $399 in the USA.

We’d already reported on the new super-skinny Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 ‘chip lens’ for Fujifilm X and Sony E mount cameras earlier in the year, and in May it became available for Nikon Z mount bodies as well. A smidge over half an inch long, pancake lenses don’t come much thinner – or cheaper, at around $80 / £80.

Still too pricey? The APS-C format SG-image AF 25mm f/1.8 for Sony E and Fujifilm X cameras also came to the market, as one of the cheapest lenses money can buy, at just $69 / £50 / AU$100.

Before we leave the bargain basement of Chinese lenses, there are a couple of rather retro items that were very newsworthy.

One is the Mandler 35mm f/2 M-mount, a reproduction of the original Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 that also bears the name of the original designer, Dr. Walter Mandler. News came of the lens with an expected price tag of $678 / £500 / AU$1,050.

Not to be outdone, Mr Ding geared up to launch the Noxlux DG 50mm f/1.2 for Nikon Z Mount, another lens with serious retro intentions, harking back to the legendary Nikon Noct 58mm f/1.2.

Something less radical but still not-quite-standard was announced in the shape of the new Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8 L-mount lens.

It would join the growing ranks of ‘alternative trinity’ constant-aperture f/2.8 standard zooms from various manufacturers, being smaller, lighter and more affordable – but with a different zoom range to the usual 24-70mm, in this case losing a little in telephoto reach. Pricing was set at $899 / £899 / AU$1,899 – not quite China-cheap but still very competitive.

More excitement came with the announcement of the Voigtländer Portrait Helier 75mm f/1.8, the company's first full-frame lens for full-frame mirrorless Sony cameras. Its party trick is a ‘spherical aberration’ control ring that enables you to alter the appearance of bokeh.

In other news of lenses offering something a bit different, there was the Blazar Beetle 1.33x Anamorphic Lens series, unique in that they rotate to enable both horizontal and vertical anamorphic imagery. Prices were expected to be around $500 / £375 / AU$780, making them comparatively affordable.

Weirdly, we only ran one new lens review in May and although it was a ‘new’ lens, it was the repurposing of a very old and somewhat uninspiring Canon zoom. At least the Canon RF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 is relatively cheap to buy, with a list price of $239 / £289 / AU$399 – quite possibly another cheap lens made in China, or thereabouts.

You might also like...

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.