For those of you who speak Chinese, this is a pretty informative preview of 4th iteration prototype (close to production spec). Weirdly Youtube doesn't have subtitles or transcription to throw into a translator...
According to the reviewer, Mandler shared a letter detailing the development history of this lens. The first two iterations were way too sharp and modern, while the third one rendered too closely to the E46 original, which they thought would make this lens pointless. The fourth iteration in the review is a compromise, where Mandler felt the need to pull back and balance between character, image quality, and optical corrections, landing it between the pre-ASH and the ASPH.
I have the Peace 1.4, a Peace 1.2 on order (supposedly will take about a month to process my order), and contemplating the Mandler 1.4 but my 50's are starting to outpace my 35's... one thing of note is the Peace was only available in aluminum for me to order, but the dubbed video says the black version is brass. Not sure if that was a prototype or a transcription issue confusing it with the Leica.
Mandler seems to be priced better than the Peace options thus far with their brass 50 being cheaper than the Peace aluminum 50 (my price is inflated due to middleman + custom paint however), but will have to wait for the Mandler 50 to release to see if the quality is still the same level as their 35.
From all I have read and experienced, there is a somewhat different philosophy between Mandler lenses and Peace lenses. Whereas Mandler, whether by design or not, make modifications to Leica's original optical formulations so that there are improvements or changes in some areas while also maintaining the physical appearance of the outer lens construction. In contrast (no pun intended), Peace lenses strive to emulate the optical properties of the original Leica lens formulations, so they closely perform to the original. I'm excluding the upcoming Peace 50mm f1.2 lens, as I have not heard anything about it performance or design goals.
