Although this behavior is not particularly surprising, it is still a little bit of a bummer, and I figured you might want to know, if you didn't already.
Tested in IE8. Reproduce by:
Making a PNG with partial alpha transparency.
Make an image in raphaeljs using this image as source.
Add partial opacity through .attr() method, eg. opacity:0.5.
Areas PNG where there was partial alpha should display now as matted on black as if it was a gif. Areas of 0 alpha should retain transparency.
Although this behavior is not particularly surprising, it is still a little bit of a bummer, and I figured you might want to know, if you didn't already.
Tested in IE8. Reproduce by: