Difference between except: and except Exception as e:

In the second you can access the attributes of the exception object:

>>> def catch():
...     try:
...         asd()
...     except Exception as e:
...         print e.message, e.args
... 
>>> catch()
global name 'asd' is not defined ("global name 'asd' is not defined",)

But it doesn't catch BaseException or the system-exiting exceptions SystemExit, KeyboardInterrupt and GeneratorExit:

>>> def catch():
...     try:
...         raise BaseException()
...     except Exception as e:
...         print e.message, e.args
... 
>>> catch()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 3, in catch
BaseException

Which a bare except does:

>>> def catch():
...     try:
...         raise BaseException()
...     except:
...         pass
... 
>>> catch()
>>> 

See the Built-in Exceptions section of the docs and the Errors and Exceptions section of the tutorial for more info.

except:

accepts all exceptions, whereas

except Exception as e:

only accepts exceptions that you're meant to catch.

Here's an example of one that you're not meant to catch:

>>> try:
...     input()
... except:
...     pass
... 
>>> try:
...     input()
... except Exception as e:
...     pass
... 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
KeyboardInterrupt

The first one silenced the KeyboardInterrupt!

Here's a quick list:

issubclass(BaseException, BaseException)
#>>> True
issubclass(BaseException, Exception)
#>>> False


issubclass(KeyboardInterrupt, BaseException)
#>>> True
issubclass(KeyboardInterrupt, Exception)
#>>> False


issubclass(SystemExit, BaseException)
#>>> True
issubclass(SystemExit, Exception)
#>>> False

If you want to catch any of those, it's best to do

except BaseException:

to point out that you know what you're doing.

All exceptions stem from BaseException, and those you're meant to catch day-to-day (those that'll be thrown for the programmer) inherit too from Exception.

There are differences with some exceptions, e.g. KeyboardInterrupt.

Reading PEP8:

A bare except: clause will catch SystemExit and KeyboardInterrupt exceptions, making it harder to interrupt a program with Control-C, and can disguise other problems. If you want to catch all exceptions that signal program errors, use except Exception: (bare except is equivalent to except BaseException:).