Photographers wary of the megapixel wars—the constant onslaught of higher-and-higher resolution cameras—might be about to get a break, as 20-plus megapixels become common. But it seems like a new war is brewing, and this one's going to be much more important for photographers.

I'm talking about the lens war. Several of the most notable lens manufacturers made some major announcements this week, both of which promise great things for the photographer.

First, Carl Zeiss announced that its SLR lenses featuring the ZE mount will be made available for Canon users. The 50mm and 85mm f/1.4 lenses will be available first and will support focus confirmation (they're manual focus) as well as full electronic data including exposure, f/stop and flash sync with Canon bodies. I've been personally hoping for this announcement for more than a year, because while I shoot both Nikon and Canon, I've always felt that the Canon system could use a better array of lenses.

The next big announcement this week is more important to the handful of loyal Leica shooters. The Leica's glass is often the empirical benchmark for other designs and the new 24mm and 21mm f/1.4 lenses are no exception. The new lenses, along with their new Leica rangefinder adapters, boast a super-wide angle for photographers, and of course the Leica quality that's come to be relied-upon by stealthy photojournalists everywhere.

Finally, comes Leica's new Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 lens. That's not a typo, that's a lens that's faster than f/1.0. Obviously, this lens has an aspherical design and incredible coatings to be able to achieve this speed. It's also got a hell of a price tag, we haven't seen the US price, but UK sites are reporting a nearly £7000 price tag!

There were some other lens announcements this week, including the Phase One Tilt/Shift Lens for medium format photography and another "slower" lens from Leica. In all, there were probably more announcements this week than before any trade show in recent memory.

Why does it matter so much what the "boutique" lens makers are doing—because they set the standard. Without an f/.95 lens on the market, there's not a lot of pressure for Canon, Nikon, Sony and others to come up with something close. Without people looking at buying a Leica system because of the glass, the glass becomes more important for everyone else.