(By Ke Gong Liangliang, Zhou Yuanfang, Wang Runlian)
A decade ago, few would have believed that Chinese brands could break into the lens market, which had long been dominated by overseas players.
During the filming of the Marvel movie Thunderbolts, a Chinese lens priced at approximately USD 600 was used. Cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo selected a Sirui anamorphic consumer-grade lens, drawn to its compact size and unique imaging characteristics.
Similar shifts are occurring in professional review circles. On October 29, Viltrox launched the 35mm F1.4 Pro full-frame lens priced at CNY 3,899. On the same day, overseas lens review site Phillip Reeve published a hands-on test report, comparing it against the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM and Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II Art.
From Marvel sets to international professional reviews, the position of Chinese lenses in the industry is changing: they are no longer synonymous with cheap manual products. Many people assume that Chinese smartphones have absorbed most daily photography needs, while Japanese camera manufacturers hold firm on the high-end market. However, today, Chinese brands are challenging their strengths.
At the same time, Chinese smartphone manufacturers are satisfying consumers' photographic needs in another way. By integrating optics, sensors, chips, and algorithms, they enable ordinary users to easily capture images that previously required specialized equipment and experience. From product innovation to user perception, Chinese brands are establishing their own home ground.
After years of exploration, China's imaging industry has forged two mutually reinforcing paths: leveraging capabilities in optics and precision manufacturing to compete with traditional overseas lens brands; and using technology to redefine and meet user needs by offering new products. Chinese brands are gradually gaining the ability to decide where to go next.
Japanese Manufacturers Retreat to the High End, Chinese Brands Knock on the Door
The interchangeable lens market itself is undergoing a profound contraction. According to data from the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) of Japan, annual shipments of interchangeable lenses have dropped from approximately 30.37 million units in 2012 to about 10.6 million units in 2025. Although 2025 saw a year-on-year rebound of 2.8%, volumes remain far below peak levels.
Changes in interchangeable lens data from 2012 to 2025. Compiled by Ke Gong Liangliang.
While total volume shrinks, shipment value has risen against the trend. In the first eight months of this year, CIPA statistics show that lens shipments by member companies fell 4.9% year-on-year, while shipment value grew by 4.4%. This illustrates a fact: fewer people are buying, but spending per lens has increased—lens consumption is concentrating on higher-value products.
This situation is linked to the impact of smartphone photography.
In 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4, packing a 5-megapixel camera, Retina display, and FaceTime into a single phone. In 2012, WeChat 4.0 launched "Moments," giving photos immediate visibility and feedback. For ordinary people, capturing, viewing, editing, and sharing no longer require separate steps: after finishing a meal or ending a trip, photos are already on the phone and sent to friends.
Camera manufacturers are facing not just a new type of camera, but a new lifestyle.
However, professional cameras still hold dominance. In professional and enthusiast segments, users continue to prefer interchangeable lens cameras; the body serves only as an entry point, with different focal lengths, apertures, and shooting scenarios driving sustained investment in lenses. New industries like short-form video also maintain demand for dedicated equipment.
Although the mainstream entry point for mass photography has shifted to smartphones, high-value demands in professional and hobbyist imaging have not disappeared.
Amidst these changes, Japanese manufacturers have bet more heavily on interchangeable lens systems. In 2013, Sony launched the full-frame mirrorless A7 and A7R; in 2018, Nikon Z6, Z7, and Canon EOS R appeared successively, making full-frame bodies, professional performance, and supporting lens groups the focus of competition. The so-called "retreat to the high end" is essentially a strategic concentration based on profit margins and corporate capabilities, strengthening brand perception. It represents both a contraction under market pressure and a proactive strategic choice.
Yet, there is more than one player at the table. Manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, and Sony possess bodies and native lenses, creating system barriers through mounts, autofocus features, and existing user lens assets; independent lens makers like Sigma and Tamron compete for users seeking more options through varying price points and product specifications.
Original manufacturers and established third-party brands have long held their positions, but new players have entered the battlefield.
Viltrox products cover various price tiers, ranging from lightweight lenses convenient for carrying to models entering the high-end market; TTArtisan and7Artisans have sequentially introduced autofocus products to attract everyday shooting users.
Other companies choose to enter through specialized shooting needs. Sirui offers smaller, more affordable cine lenses, lowering the barrier for video creators; Laowa designs slender "probe" lenses, allowing photographers to reach into narrow spaces and capture images difficult for standard lenses.
These enterprises each have their focus, gradually expanding the product landscape of Chinese lenses from daily documentation and portrait photography to filmmaking. In a market with shrinking totals and deep-rooted legacy manufacturers, Chinese companies are carving out their place: after purchasing Japanese-brand cameras, photographers now have increasingly more Chinese lens options.
"In Martial Arts, Speed Conquers All"
In reality, Chinese brands like Viltrox and TTArtisan cannot yet be called "mainstream"; average consumers may not have heard of them, and their product lines and brand accumulation are incomparable to Sony or Nikon. However, among photography enthusiasts and in second-hand equipment transactions, they are being repeatedly discussed, tested, and purchased. To some extent, they have breached the positions held by veteran manufacturers.
In September 2026, the second-hand photography equipment platform MPB released sales data showing Viltrox entering the top ten lens brands by sales volume, while TTArtisan rose 11 spots year-on-year to rank thirteenth. Chinese brands have appeared on the same sales leaderboard as camera and lens manufacturers operating for decades. Bloomberg reported that Chinese lenses are gradually shedding the image of cheap substitutes, becoming a choice understood by discerning overseas photography enthusiasts.
Second-hand trading carries a special signal: new products can gain exposure through launch events and review samples, but if old lenses re-enter the market and still find buyers, it indicates they must rely not only on hype but also on performance, price, and practicality to remain attractive. At least within their covered user base, Chinese brands are being chosen by more photography enthusiasts.
When emerging Chinese brands entered the lens industry, they brought a different approach to product development. Traditional lens manufacturers often plan product lines years in advance, releasing new items gradually based on R&D and manufacturing progress; Chinese vendors tend to get products to market quickly, collecting issues from photography communities, social platforms, and professional reviews, then feeding back into the development process. This flexible supply capability has garnered significant user praise.
Bloomberg noted that Viltrox consistently engages with photography communities and social platforms, sending review units to testers. One photography blogger recalled that after pointing out issues in a video, he saw a lens firmware update fixing the problems within about two weeks.
This approach resembles internet product methodology: software issues can be fixed quickly via firmware updates; optical and mechanical structural issues are addressed in the next generation. Lenses certainly cannot be treated like mobile apps, as lens elements and assembly errors cannot vanish through online updates, but the way companies respond to users and schedule product iterations has changed.
In March 2026, Kazuma Yamaki, CEO of Japanese lens manufacturer Sigma, told overseas media The-Digital-Picture about the recent progress of Chinese lens companies, specifically highlighting their ability to make quick decisions and act swiftly. He believes Japanese companies are relatively conservative in this regard and should learn from Chinese firms.
"In martial arts, nothing withstands speed." Rapid response, dense iteration, and continuous product refinement based on user feedback have become basic skill sets for many manufacturing enterprises. As usage issues, scenario complaints, and purchasing choices are continuously collected, companies can faster identify needs not fully covered by original manufacturers' product portfolios. This more accessible and grounded approach helps Chinese brands gain consumer approval more easily.
China's NEV industry has demonstrated similar competitive tactics: new brands did not copy traditional automakers' product lineups item by item but turned smart cockpits, assisted driving, and daily use scenarios into new challenges, building advantages through rapid iteration. "Random punches defeating the master" may seem chaotic, but behind it lies a simultaneous change in user needs, product definition, and development rhythm. Young players in the lens industry are also finding their punching positions beyond existing specifications.
Sirui's anamorphic lens entering the Thunderbolts set is one example. Its competitiveness does not lie in surpassing high-end cine lenses in every parameter, but in providing an alternative outside the original product portfolio through its compact size, approx. USD 600 price, and unique imaging effect.
Viltrox's slim "pancake" lenses satisfy users' desire for cameras to be more portable. According to People's Daily Overseas Edition, after launch, cumulative sales exceeded hundreds of thousands of units via platforms like AliExpress. Instead of competing along the single path of "larger aperture, higher specs," it converted users' portability needs into product value.
Laowa designed slender "probe" lenses capable of reaching narrow spaces inaccessible to standard lenses. They can shoot close-ups of insects and flower stamens while including the surrounding environment, immersing viewers in a microscopic world. Second-hand trading platform MPB also found that although Thypoch has low transaction volume, its lenses for Leica cameras attract a group of photography enthusiasts who enjoy manual focusing.
Anamorphic, pancake, probe macro, and manual operation address different scenarios respectively. The market positioning of Chinese lenses goes far beyond being "cheaper versions of Japanese lenses." In meeting needs, rapid development, and path innovation, some companies have already begun branded operations, defining their own challenges. This relies on a systematic capability structure.
The Confidence to Take a Seat Comes from Systematic Capabilities
Lenses are an industry highly dependent on technical accumulation and precision manufacturing. Products for different uses have varying requirements for optical design, lens processing, mechanical structure, and electronic control. Whether a design can be transformed into a mass-delivered product at reasonable cost depends on the manufacturing system formed through long-term collaboration between enterprises and suppliers.
People's Daily reported in June 2026 that when Viltrox first produced high-precision aspherical lenses, it spent two years coordinating with partners; the first autofocus motor took three years from project initiation to maturity. As technology, talent, and supply chains matured, Viltrox's lens R&D cycle shortened to about a year and a half. Such coordination occurs within the industrial network in the Pearl River Delta, where precision molds, optical lenses, and electronic components have formed complete support systems.
Designers know what performance the lens requires, suppliers know how to stably produce parts, and after multiple rounds of revisions, a design blueprint becomes a repeatable deliverable product. Once key components and processes mature, experience can be reused in subsequent products. Turning "getting it right once" into "getting it right ten thousand times" relies precisely on such accumulation.
Some manufacturers choose to keep more critical processes in-house. Sirui transitioned from photography accessories to lenses, investing in optics starting in 2014, and finally mastering autonomous mass production technology for cylindrical lenses in 2019 to launch its first anamorphic lens. Sirui stated that the company has cumulatively invested CNY 300 million in upgrading optical production lines and base construction.
Internet-style tactics have not replaced manufacturing accumulation but rather turned it into faster response capabilities. Design experience can be reused, suppliers know how to coordinate modifications, and production lines can stably implement corrections, enabling companies to sustain firmware updates, structural improvements, and new product development.
However, manufacturing and iteration capabilities solve the problem of "whether products can be made," while market competition must also answer how to win users. Domestic lenses are entering a mature market where Japanese manufacturers have already established mounts, lens groups, reviews, and credit distribution. Much of the demand is not blank space waiting to be developed, but stock occupied by original manufacturers, established third-parties, and second-hand products. After catching up on parameters, harder thresholds begin to appear.
Returning to the initial review, Viltrox's new lens ultimately failed to receive a recommendation. A realistic reason is: in the overseas second-hand market, a similar budget can buy a high-end Sony lens; Viltrox's own higher-end LAB series is only about 20% more expensive than this new lens yet performs better in multiple aspects.
As domestic lenses enter the mid-to-high-end market, they face not only Japanese brands' new products. Large numbers of older models, promotions, second-hand equipment, and Chinese brands' own diverse product lines all compete for the same consumers. Image quality and price are important, but size, focusing, handling, and long-term reliability also influence final choices.
The patent dispute between Nikon and Viltrox in 2026 brought this relationship directly to the surface. Nikon claimed that certain Viltrox Z-mount autofocus lenses infringed its patents and filed a royalty lawsuit at the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. In July, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), upon request by Viltrox's affiliate Jueying Technology, declared two disputed Nikon patents invalid. Although Viltrox currently obtained a favorable result, civil legal issues remain to be resolved.
Nikon Patent Invalidity Decision. Source: CNIPA "Decision on Examination of Request for Declaration of Invalidity" (No. 661357).
These difficulties collectively demonstrate that competing away from home involves not just products, but stock within the existing system. The interchangeable lens market is certainly worth fighting for, as orders, reviews, and patent battles accumulate capabilities; however, China's greater confidence lies in the fact that our main battlefield is not limited to the interchangeable lens market.
Conclusion
From Marvel sets to professional reviews and second-hand sales leaderboards, Chinese brand lenses are frequently appearing, taking seats at tables traditionally dealt by Japanese manufacturers and other legacy brands. This is not merely a breakthrough for several products, but a multi-dimensional breakout: manufacturing networks, rapid-response development rhythms, and sensitivity to niche needs together constitute the chips for sitting at the table.
But sitting at the table does not mean winning the game. Gaps in self-sufficiency for high-end optical materials, constraints imposed by mount patent rules, declining gross margins year-on-year, and relatively weak brand perception all remind us of the same thing—if "speed" and "cheapness" cannot ultimately precipitate into brand credibility and profit margins, the industry remains far from true strength.
However, new collaborations are emerging. In 2025, Sirui and Viltrox joined the L-Mount Alliance initiated by Leica, Panasonic, and Sigma, allowing them to develop lenses for cameras of different alliance brands according to unified technical standards. For body manufacturers, having one more excellent lens means one more reason to attract users to choose their cameras. If Chinese companies can provide such products, room for cooperation expands. In the future, photographers might first covet a Chinese lens and then select a compatible body. This is the next step worth striving for by Chinese lenses.