diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 1970358..7b838e1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* In IE, allow opacity to be set on elements not yet attached to the document. Closes #9904. [Thomas Fuchs, dcpedit, Tobie Langel]
+
 * Avoid the try..catch block in Ajax.Response#_getResponseJSON unless required. [Tobie Langel]
 
 * Add more tests to Element.update. Closes #9327. [Tobie Langel]
diff --git a/src/dom.js b/src/dom.js
index ba86405..1512459 100644
--- a/src/dom.js
+++ b/src/dom.js
@@ -747,7 +747,11 @@ else if (Prototype.Browser.IE) {
       return filter.replace(/alpha\([^\)]*\)/gi,'');
     }
     element = $(element);
-    if (!element.currentStyle.hasLayout) element.style.zoom = 1;
+    var currentStyle = element.currentStyle;
+    if ((currentStyle && !currentStyle.hasLayout) ||
+      (!currentStyle && element.style.zoom == 'normal'))
+        element.style.zoom = 1;
+    
     var filter = element.getStyle('filter'), style = element.style;
     if (value == 1 || value === '') {
       (filter = stripAlpha(filter)) ?
diff --git a/test/unit/dom.html b/test/unit/dom.html
index dc4f901..a484583 100644
--- a/test/unit/dom.html
+++ b/test/unit/dom.html
@@ -223,6 +223,8 @@
 <div id="style_test_2" class="style-test" style="font-size:11px;"></div>
 
 <div id="style_test_3">blah</div>
+<span id="style_test_4">blah</span>
+<span id="style_test_5">blah</span>
 
 <div id="style_test_dimensions_container">
   <div id="style_test_dimensions" style="background:#ddd;padding:1px;margin:1px;border:1px solid #00f"><div style="height:5px;background:#eee;width:5px;padding:2px;margin:2px;border:2px solid #0f0"> </div>
@@ -1085,7 +1087,13 @@
       assert(
         $('style_test_3').setOpacity(0.9999999).getStyle('opacity') > 0.999
       );
-      
+      if (Prototype.Browser.IE) {
+        assert($('style_test_4').setOpacity(0.5).currentStyle.hasLayout);
+        assert(2, $('style_test_5').setOpacity(0.5).getStyle('zoom'));
+        assert(0.5, new Element('div').setOpacity(0.5).getOpacity());
+        assert(2, new Element('div').setOpacity(0.5).setStyle('zoom: 2;').getStyle('zoom'));
+        assert(2, new Element('div').setStyle('zoom: 2;').setOpacity(0.5).getStyle('zoom'));
+      }
     }},
     
     testElementGetStyle: function() { with(this) {