“….at around $999 / £900, it costs several times as much as the 50mm F1.4 options for DSLR systems. So what exactly are you paying for?”
Oh, that is an easy enough question to answer, yes indeed.
Let us see now… okay, so the lens will go for USD 999 buckaroos, correct?
Okay, so first you pay the “name surcharge” associated with the Sony name: $300.
Next, you pay the “name surcharge” associated with the Zeiss name: yeap, that will be yet another $300, good people.
What you have got left — $399 – is all that this lens is really worth and should be selling for. Really.
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.