The optical design is 8 elements in 5 groups which does not match either their Milvus or ZM 35/2 Distagon designs. Could be better, could be worse, could just be different. Also,“The optical design incorporates two double-sided aspherical elements, which help to reduce spherical aberrations and minimize distortion.” I can’t find any reference to aspherical elements of any kind in the Zeiss literature on their Milvus or ZM versions. Maybe this lens sets some kind of a new standard for 35/2 lenses, maybe it’s just harsh. At this point, nobody knows anything. The Leica 35/2 SL lens by itself costs $5,100. This is the world we live in. And reflexively saying at this point that the Leica lens is better because “it’s a Leica” might be showing some inner fanboy.
Earlier shutter literature on the Zeiss site says 1/2000 “with the leaf shutter being limited to 1/1000”, so anything faster than 1/1000, whether it be 1/2000 or 1/8000 is likely going to be electronic. Maybe the 2 year delay in introduction had to do with them trying to figure out what numbers to put on the physical dial, and how to get them all on there.
Also, who makes a 37.4 MP full frame sensor? Sony doesn’t, and never has, as far as I can tell. This Zeiss body is the only implementation of such a sensor anywhere, near as I can tell ( correct me please if I am missing something). So, where does this come from and is it any good? Better than everyone else’s, worse, or just different? Everyone seems preoccupied with the handling and the body shape and connectivity etc, but the sensor and the lens are the two biggest contributors to image quality, and the quality of these are both completely unknown at this point.
Maybe some of the costs reflects an eternal subscription to the camera’s internal Lightroom CC. Maybe it just reflects the realities of today’s camera market, maybe it’s just nuts. What we know today about this camera in use, how good the lens is, etc, is dwarfed by what we don’t know, but I am personally surprised it showed up at all. Though there appears to be no new info from Zeiss at all on their site, so saying that the camera has “been released with little fanfare” overstates the fanfare.