12 lenses of Christmas: Sigma brings the bokeh, Fujifilm flips a pancake with a twist, and Laowa does what Canon can't

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

Sigma has long had a habit of launching lenses with genuine wow-factor. And if you feel the need for speed, you can’t help but be impressed by the announcement of the go-faster Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 DC Art.

It’s a not-so-standard zoom for APS-C format Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon RF and L-mount cameras, with an equivalent 25.5-60mm zoom range (27.2-64mm for Canon). The zoom range itself isn’t remarkable, but the fast and constant f/1.8 sets the lens apart from its competitors. The launch price was listed at $919 / £779 / AU$1,499.

Bringing a similarly impressive turn of speed to cinematography, there was also news of groundbreaking Sigma Aizu Prime Line of T1.3 cine lenses. Bring on the bokeh!

It was clear that 2025 was becoming a year of downsized delights, with photographers searching out compact cameras and skinny lenses to make their svelte mirrorless cameras look and feel more like, well, compact cameras.

Fujifilm catered to its shooters (at least some of them) with a new Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2.8 R WR pancake lens that weighs just 90g. The only catch was that you couldn’t actually buy it; instead, it was only offered as a kit lens bundled with the delectable little Fujifilm X-E5.

Meanwhile, it was portrait prime time for Viltrox. There weren’t exactly announcements but specs were leaked for the new Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro for full-frame Sony E (FE) and Nikon Z cameras, plus the APS-C format Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.2 Pro for Sony E, Nikon Z (DX) and Fujifilm X cameras.

The latter has almost the same 85mm ‘effective’ focal length, combined with an even faster aperture rating. Prices would later work out to $598 / £569 / AU$919 for the 85mm full-frame lens and $580 / £530 for the APS-C format 56mm lens.

Venus Optics went ultra-wide in June with two new Laowa lenses. First was the reinvention of a Canon fisheye zoom for DSLRs that was subsequently released as a ‘me too’ Nikkor lens for Nikon DSLRs.

The Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens delivers the same trick for mirrorless Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF and L-mount full-frame cameras, giving the option of a circular fisheye effect at the short end of the zoom range, and a diagonal fisheye effect at the long end.

It’s truly like two lenses in one, making it something of a bargain at $699 / £517 / AU$1,077. Not keen on fisheyes? The Laowa 12mm f/2.8 FF II also launched as a rectilinear ultra-wide-angle lens for full-frame cameras.

Leica hit the news with the announcement of its lightest SL zoom lens to date, the new Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 28–70 f/2.8 Asph.

With typically solid Leica build, the lens has a weather-resistant metal construction but is easily manageable at 102mm in length and 572g in weight. For a Leica lens, this zoom is also relatively affordable at $1,890 / £1,650 although, a little laughably, the hood is sold separately.

And for Leica rangefinder cameras, the Voigtländer 28mm f/2 launched with the billing of being the company’s sharpest ever wide-angle lens in M-mount. The launch price was predicted to be around $1,030 / £760.

Our test lab earned its keep in June with a particularly hectic review schedule.

Going full tilt (even if we didn’t actually feature any tilt lenses) we tested and reviewed each and every one of the new Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 DC | A, Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro, LK Samyang Schneider-Kreuznach AF 14-24mm f/2.8, Venus Optics Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye, Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4.5 0.5x Macro and 7Artisans Vision 50mm T1.05.

It’s pretty much impossible to pick a winner out of that little lot. Suffice it to say that they all bring something special to the summer party!

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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.