12 lenses of Christmas: Pancake lenses! Fisheye lenses! DSLR lenses! Limited edition lenses! The freaks come out to play

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

Sony unveiled some new kit for the new year, and not before time! Full-frame Sony Alpha mirrorless cameras have come a long way in the last 12 years, but the kit zoom lens they’re typically supplied with has remained unchanged – until now.

The Sony A7 V launched as a prime example of ‘better, faster, more’ and to make the most of its speed, the manufacturer announced a new kit zoom lens in the shape of the Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS II.

For comparison, the original Sony A7 had a maximum burst rate of just 5fps, but it’s 30fps in the latest ‘V’ incarnation. The new lens is designed to keep pace, as well as delivering autofocus and autoexposure tracking at up to 120 fps, along with continuous autofocus while zooming.

Leica appeared to be on a Christmas binge, unveiling no less than four new special-edition M-lenses, including a trio of Safari primes and an all-black ‘Classic’.

The Safari triplets are matte olive green editions of the Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 Asph, Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 Asph and the Summicron-M 28mm f/2 Asph.

The colorway has resurfaced multiple times over the decades and brings a touch of seasonal nostalgia. There was also a new glossy black version of the Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 from the Classic line.

For those in a festive feasting frame of mind, pancakes were definitely on the menu. Google data revealed that photographers became much more intent on searching for the best pancake lenses in 2025, hitting a five-year high. The skinny build of these lenses ties in with the rise in popularity of compact cameras through the year.

We also reported that the dinky little Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2.8 R WR pancake lens had become available to buy separately, instead of just as a kit lens for the Fujifilm X-E5, and that it was selling out fast.

With compact cameras in the ascendency, Viltrox set out to remind us all that you can have ‘interchangeable’ lenses for them – in one way, at least.

There was the announcement of two new Viltrox conversion lenses for Fujifilm X100 series cameras, comprising the TCL-X100 II (which converts the camera's native ‘effective’ 35mm focal to a more standard 50mm) and the WCL-X100 II wide converter (which results in an equivalent 28mm).

The company also released its super-fast Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.2 Lab in a Nikon Z mount version, following on from the Sony E mount edition that launched earlier in the year.

What price a fast f/1.2 prime lens with an all-metal build? A certain Chinese manufacturer made news with its new 7Artisans MF 50mm f/1.2 for crop-sensor cameras, available in APS-C format (for Sony E, Fujifilm X and Nikon Z mounts) plus Micro Four Thirds.

In these types of cameras, it has an ‘effective’ focal length of 75mm or 100mm respectively, putting it into portraiture territory. Astonishingly the lens went on sale at just $99 in the USA, roughly equivalent to £74 / AU$149.

There was also a new 7Artisans MF 6mm f/2 diagonal fisheye lens for Sony E, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, Canon RF and Micro Four Thirds cameras, while TTArtisan launched 50mm and 85mm T2.1 cine lenses with adjustable bokeh.

And so to the ‘funnies’ that often crop up at the end of the news. In December we brought you tales of three new oddball lenses that were outselling traditional optics in Japan, along with a brand new Pergear 50mm f/1.2 that harks back to lenses of the Eighties.

There was also shock news that DSLRs still weren’t dead, with a new Meike 85mm f/1.8 SE Mark II lens launching in Canon EF mount. And finally, there was talk of a frankly bonkers new Laowa macro lens with up to 10x magnification.

We rounded off 2025’s reviews in December with the supremely versatile Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro and the delightfully downsized Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR pancake lens.

Last but not least, there were not one but two 24-60mm f/2.8 zooms. One was the L-mount Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8, the other was the LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE for Sony E mount cameras. What a year it was. Bring on 2026!

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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.