Every Sony Zeiss is a Sony design. But, they will still follow some Zeiss design conventions. The Distagon will still be a reversed teleprime with another element (its why corners are a touch soft but the centers are amazing), and the Tessars are always simple 4-element designs with flaws, but tend to be lighter(24-70/4 is an excellent example of Vario-Tessars) and have great contrast. The Sonnars are the more unique one, as they are bright (wider aperture lenses) but do have a design pattern. The ZA 85/1.4 is a Planar design, it is incredibly sharp, and can have issues with CA (it does, but unless you shoot artic black dogs, it won't ruin your life). The Batis is a Sonnar and could really be anything. But if it just a smaller version of Sony's ZA135/1.8, it will be amazing. Once the lens design is out, we can see. But who makes it will have less affect than design.
philber wrote:
Joshua, let me make my question clearer: we now know that the Sony-Zeiss FE lenses were/are designed by a Sony team, and are badged Zeiss. My question is: was that also the case for the ZA 85, or was it then designed by a Zeiss team? If it was designed by a Sony team like, say the FE 55 or 35, then I expect the Batis to be substantially different from the ZA 85.