Ring shaped highlights in the bokeh
The unique thing with mirror lenses is that the highlights in the bokeh show up like blurred circles. It's not a bad thing, but it can be very distracting. I had a Tamron 500mm mirror f8 that was surprisingly sharp and light that I loved to use as my long lens before it got stolen almost 3 years ago, and I would use one again if I was shooting film. Most mirrors are manual focus only (does any one else make an AF mirror? I think only Minolta does although I'm not sure about that-f8 is pretty dark for AF, especially on my Canon DSLR's.) and on the smaller, darker view finders of the DSLR's, that gets challenging especially since most mirrors are f8. If I had a full frame DSLR like the 1Ds, I might think about getting one again.
Re: Ring shaped highlights in the bokeh
My Minolta V100 APS SLR has an AF 400mm mirror lens in the range.
Fixed, f8, and the AF on the miniolta is very slow.
Also suffers from vignetting.
But I've got some great shots with it that I wouldn't get any other way.
Pretty cheap at £300 when you consider the price of a Canon EF 400mm :)