You mentioned that you have seen many tutorials, so maybe you know about these, but Akra's Devnotes has the most extensive tutorial I have seen yet.

Akra’s DevNotes Tutorial: Getting Started with the Zend Framework

I don't think it takes v1.5 into account, however, which is fine its just v1.5 has a lot of cool features I am excited about (Zend_Layout, Zend_Form, more View_Helpers etc). If you download the framework please download v1.5.

I found that tutorial to be way exhausting though for a first attempt, and I found myself typing in code that I didn't quite understand. I wanted something more minimal so I could see what code was the absolute minimum necessary to get this thing up and running. I found the Video page on the Zend Framework web site to be very helpful. It makes all this stuff seem straighforward and encourages you to forge ahead on your own into uncharted territory. All you really need is a tutorial telling you how to set up the initial site, and the rest is all fun (or frustrating) experimentation.

Zend Framework: Documentation

Watch those videos you will be running a demo site in no time.

I really believe in the people behind this framework and I stand by it. This is a framework for developers. Just give it a chance.