Sigma FP2 at $2,199, a vintage 50mm f/1.4 for 2027, and Nikon's rumoured $16k zoom

Sigma 50mm F1.4 CL DG Contemporary — opens a vintage-styled branch of the I series: an aluminium fast fifty that gives up clinical corners for rendering, roughly 65mm long, 375g, 52mm filters. Focus moves the whole lens rather than an internal group, and Sigma says it can wobble, so continuous autofocus for video is not what it is for. A small autofocus f/1.4 has barely existed — compact fifties were usually manual focus — so this is the one to watch if you want one prime on the body all weekend. No price announced; launch is expected in early Spring 2027 for L and Sony E mounts, black or silver. DPReview

SG-image AF 35mm f/1.4 Legacy — has gone from Chinese trade-show glass case to actual order button: an all-metal APS-C prime with STM autofocus, a plain seven-element, six-group design and 227g on the scales. It is the cheap-and-cheerful route to a fast normal-ish prime on an X or E body, though STM focus motors are the slow end of the market and the listing arrives without a published price. E-mount comes in black, silver or black-and-silver; X-mount is silver only. Photo Rumors

Escura InstantSnap.novo — is the second run at Escura's see-through-window compact, which now carries a 1.3-inch LCD as well — because the transparent finder only framed accurately with the camera pressed to your eye. Five colour filters and a '35mm Film Frame' mode are baked in. Not a serious purchase, but it is the cheapest way into the Y2K digicam fad, and it arrives after Godox shipped a near-identical camera earlier this year. 1MP CMOS sensor, fixed 1/125sec shutter, fixed focus from 0.3m, 1440p30 video, 38g, $52. Amateur Photographer

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 CL, from the Sony side — Sony Alpha Rumors is taken with the new compact fifty and digs into how Sigma shrank it: a rotary focus motor, an old idea rebuilt with coils and magnets set in a circle. Focus is reportedly slower than on other Sigma lenses, but fine for stills, and the MTF chart and samples show what the size costs optically. If you shoot E-mount, this is the trade to weigh now rather than in spring: real autofocus and f/1.4 in a body-cap-ish package, against softer results than an Art prime. It ends up smaller than Sigma's own 50mm f/2, and is still about five months from shelves. Sony Alpha Rumors

“Usually to have a compact f/1.4 lens the trade off was to get a manual focusing lens like for example this Leica Summilux”

Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR vs Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.2 Pro — Pit Haupert has lived with both X-mount portrait primes and finds the gap narrower than the price suggests: metal bodies, full sealing and aperture rings on each, both very sharp wide open. Viltrox's twin linear motors are quicker and quieter than Fujifilm's older DC coreless motor, yet he missed slightly more frames with it. This is the classic first-party premium question for an X shooter, and the answer here is firmware-dependent rather than settled — the Viltrox's launch firmware focused badly and improved a lot with an update. At B&H one of them costs roughly half the price of the other; flare is the Viltrox's clearer weakness, with red ring artefacts if you hunt for the angle. Fstoppers

“Reviews written in a lens' first weeks can age quickly, so check which firmware a tester used and update your own copy before judging focus.”

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary — Mark Bennett's verdict, via Fstoppers, is that this is the standard zoom kits ought to ship with: starting at 20mm and f/2.8 rather than 24mm and f/3.5, weather-resistant, 372g without caps and a 67mm thread, with no stabilisation of its own. If you're still on the zoom that came with the body, this is the upgrade that changes what you can frame indoors — and the wide end absorbs the crop video stabilisation takes away. $849, close to Sigma's constant-aperture 28-70mm f/2.8; expect strong barrel distortion and heavy vignetting at 20mm f/2.8, and stop to about f/5.6 for edge-to-edge sharpness. Fstoppers