Minolta RF 800mm 1:8 Catadioptric Lens

[motleypixel]

For starters, these are the only two posts on the WWW that has information about this lens:

http://www.minolta-forum.de/forum/4homepages/details.php?image_id=7054

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenwales/4277800414/#

*UPDATE, now there are 3 posts on the WWW!  Antony North (owner of The Rokkor Files) has released a review of my lens...since it's rare he obliged to review it:  Minolta RF 800mm 1:8 review on The Rokkor Files

Here's my flickr set showing many more sample shots and even HD video of the moon taken with this beast: http://www.flickr.com/photos/motleypixel/sets/72157625159796808/

So here’s an unusual find, at least for me.  The Minolta RF 800mm 1:8 Catadioptric.  When I acquired this lens last month I immediately began work on an EOS mount.  Knowing that it had zero aperture mechanics I was sure it was going to be an easy conversion.  The only question I had in the beginning was whether or not the screw-in filter (screws into the Minolta RS mount) was required or not.  Well after some searching I came across a good review of the Minolta 500mm f/8 RF Rokkor-X and in this review Antony does point out that the screw-in filter should stay in for performance.  So know this set me back a little, but I got it figured out.

#1 The package:


#2 The guts:


#3 The mounts.  On the left is a machined M42-EOS adapter with an epoxied 42-to-39mm reducing bushing which, to my astonishment, works as a perfect mate to the screw-in 39mm filter.


#4 The EOS conversion complete (non-destructive, i.e. this is fully reversible back to stock).  The ONLY removal of Minolta stock I had to do was 1mm of the Minolta normal screw-in filter housing.  Also shown is a hand-crafted aluminum filter key:


#5 Here’s the lens along with the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM for comparison:


#6 LOL, give a photog a mm and he’ll want a few more  The 7-element RMC Tokina Doubler converted to EOS:


#7 2560mm f/16 Effective


SAMPLES

This moon shot was taken from downtown Austin, TX by Greg Daem with a Canon EOS 50D:


The moon at 1600mm including a video.

All the rest of the sample shots

Thanks for looking!

[motleypixel]

This very lens is now featured on The Rokkor Files website (see OP for the link).  Here's a video taken with this lens:

[DigitalScape]

you should be able to see the man-in-the-moon with that lens!

[motleypixel]