Actually, I don’t see why you ask that, the ED80 is my best lens as far as contrast and bokeh goes (and sharpness), it doesn’t have a DOF as short as my 300mm F/4 but the bokeh is better, understand that by saying better I don’t mean the DOF is as short, just better quality, smother.
By having so few elements I don’t find that surprising, and F/7.5 is more than enough to defocus everything behind the birds, providing you choose your locations carefully. But that is true for any lens, you just can’t rely on using a lens faster aperture to defocus backgrounds, because if you go much faster than what we’re using you end up with only the birds eyes being in focus, at least shooting this close, and the backgrounds still wont be as good as you hoped.
About the contrast, well, it’s just as the scope is, it’s very contrasty. Maybe mine is a bit better since I flocked it completely, it did make a difference, but even original it was quite good.
I usually shoot manual too, only on very rare occasions I use aperture mode.
No remotes or lockup for me, just sticking my eye against the eyecup, hand on the focuser and finger on the shutter button, that and trying my best to hold everything rock solid.
The thumb screw you see it’s what locks the rotary motion of the focuser.
The thumb screws that used to hold the camera adapter were replaced by allen screws, to keep the scope as clean as possible.
You should avoid every bit of shake if possible. But I’m afraid the Kenkos are a lost cause |:d|
I have that on my TCs too, not much to do there :C unless you want to replace the mounts. I actually considered that, replace them for my extension tubes, I have a set of tubes from fototip, witch were incredibly cheap and have a far better fit than kenkos.
Then again, these plays/shakes are not so bad as the scope itself shaking, the effect on IQ is much less. So don’t worry too much.
And no problem with the questions, that's what this forum is for
