Camera Labs

I recently inherited a Solid Cat lens made by Perkin Elmer in the sixties and at some point marketed by Vivitar.
It is an 800 mm f/11 tele that is very compact (catadioptric/Cassegrain), about the size of a 28-oz canned food tin.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... _cat.shtml

WHAT IS THE BEST CHOICE FOR A CAMERA BACK?
I do want to make a serious effort to optimize the interface rather than just cobbling together something that works.

Considerations:

Lens weight (~3 lbs) will dominate ergonomics

Basic engineering - focal plane alignment, depth of focus, mounting hardware

Top flight image stabilization (body mount). 800mm tele (but heavy)
---bandwidth of response; range of travel of compensation elements

Standard DSLR body (front overhang of prism) may interfere with mounting

Sensor that is a match to use conditions
--- sensitivity -- high shutter speeds will be the norm.

Visibility of darker image in LCD - f/11


Thanks to anyone who takes this up!

/gwk

If you want image stabilisation then it has to be done in body, and that means Sony or Olympus. I know Oly let you program in any focal length, not sure about the Sony models so that needs looking up. Alternatively you could possibly chip it so it reports a value to the body.

I guess the "mirrorless" bodies would also be workable with this lens, so they could be looked at too. Here I think only Oly do in body stabilisation.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.