What a great product this is! My previous pair of binoculars were also Bushnell so I knew how durable their stuff was even before I went out shopping. I dropped that first pair on the rocky Maine coast quite a few times when I lived there. However, when they didn't make the move to Colorado quite as well as I did (thanks for nothing, UPS!), I decided to just replace them with more of the same.

Since I had my old pair of 7-15x35 binoculars for several years, the latest offering from Bushnell had some really nice updates. The awkward rolling focus knob of my old pair was replaced with their Insta-Focus lever. I find the side-to-side rocking motion of this more stable and much easier to use when I'm subtly fine-tuning the focus, especially when zoomed in at very close range.

The zooming mechanism itself is very smooth. It is easy to operate the sliding lever with one finger of your right hand without having to take your eyes away from the viewfinder. There are markings on the unit that indicate the various zoom distances (7x, 8x, 9x, etc.) for your reference.

In addition to the ability to adjust the "interpupillary distance" to get the viewfinder lens to match the size between your eyes, you can also individualize it even more to your personal vision with the built-in diopter setting. Other nice perks of the updated model from Bushnell include rubber covers for all fours lenses and the rubber eye cups around the viewfinder lens, which can be left up to shut out external light or rolled down to accommodate users who wear eyeglasses.