I got a chance to handle this camera on Sunday. Sony had a booth setup at the Spruce Meadows Masters this weekend. I've got to say, that this looks like a real slick camera. Was a bit too small for my taste, but the wife loved it (she especially loved the eye start AF focus - again not really for my taste).
AF seemed pretty fast, and while i didn't take any shots, was impressed with the build quality of the lenses - especially compared aganist Canon's consumer grade lenses.
THe pricing was also competitive to the Rebel XT in Canada, but the Sony seems to be a much slicker camera, with much better lenses (I'm not comparing the built quaility of Canon's L lenses, but Canon's regular consumer lenses).
The guy working the stall new nothing about photography but really empasized the zeiss lineup. Be interesting to see the test reports on these lenses when they are out. The brouchure also had a pretty solid lineup - 24-70 F2.8, 70-200 F2.8 and either a 17-35F2.8 or a 16-35F2.8. So they do have a pro/advanced amatuer oriented offereing.
For myself, i'm hoping this will lead to further price reductions.