The article reviews the diverse and high-quality Chinese lenses released in 2025, highlighting major brands like Viltrox, Thypoch, Laowa, and others, emphasizing their innovation, performance, and affordability, with Viltrox standing out as a major player with a prolific year.
Viltrox has released its 35mm f/1.2 LAB lens for Nikon Z-mount cameras, offering a professional-level, affordable alternative to Nikon's own lens, with similar features, excellent optical performance, and weather sealing, priced at $999 compared to Nikon's $2,596.95.
Viltrox, a third-party lens manufacturer, confirms it is working on a firmware update to improve compatibility and performance of its lenses on the Sony a7 V, dispelling rumors that Sony intentionally degraded third-party lens performance. The issues are attributed to normal post-release optimizations, and Sony has stated it did not make any intentional changes to harm third-party lenses, with manufacturers like Viltrox actively working to resolve the compatibility issues.