[Zig]

Oh my. Looks like I'll have to eat tinned mackerel for the next year(again).
The f1.4, I gather, is going on sale in early 2011.
I've seen the stock announcements...but does anyone know of a hands-on review yet?

[matthew]

I've heard nothing that isn't online at Zeiss's own site, which has an excellent setup designed to discourage easy linking. There's a PDF about it, otherwise you need to go to http://www.zeiss.com/photo and dig through it from there.

I have to admit that I'm a little puzzled by the whole "fast+wide" idea. Given that there's no such thing as a bad Zeiss lens - or a cheap one, for that matter - what is going to be the appeal of the 1,4/35 over the 2/35? With the lenses for the ZM mount, where a stop of light usually can't be invented by bumping up the ISO setting, any two lenses with the different speeds in the same focal length will have dramatically different characteristics. But as the existing 35mm f/2 SLR lens is already an excellent performer, why is the extra stop of aperture so appealing that it overwhelms the penalties of the additional $839US cost and an extra 300g in the camera bag?

[Zig]

Hmmm... quality of bokeh, plus that stop, is a mighty persuasive fulcrum though(yet I wonder how distortion and chromatic aberration(sic?) would fare). Some users of the f2 notice a change through to triangular specular highlights as one moves through the apertures, which might not be everyone's cup of darj.
Yes indeed: extra weight and cost: the latter being the consequence of the extra-clever glassery of matching refractive indices. I myself will have a good long suck 'n' see until the price of both get a little more nice(that'll be next summer then). I tend to think, in agreement with your comment on their quality, that there'll be less difference between the Zeiss f2 and 1.4 than the Canon models of the same aperture(not that the Canon 35/2 is a complete slouch.
Thanks Matthew...I've also just remembered that the Zeiss 1.4 has been thoroughly lauded in its original Contax-Yashica incarnation...chances are that the ZE will behave in a way comparable to the 21mm's "transition" from CY to ZE.
(Oh, OT: they do Moo cards over here: looks neat and I'll be giving them a try)