It's been a long time since I had to deal with manual focus! We're used to having autofocus on most devices, so having to turn a dial to see what you need is refreshing. As long as you can do it fast enough, in the case of bird watching... These are very decent binoculars and they are compact too - to the point that I find the product description confusing. It is described as "for adults" and yet all the photos show children using it. I think those with big hands or heads should look elsewhere. I would say these are more suitable for a child. They feel good in the hand - certainly no sloppiness in any of the actions. In use you have to turn away from modern cameras (and phones), you only have one device, which in this case makes everything 10 times closer. There's no zoom, so what you see is what you get. To be honest, I found that a bit limiting. Still, provided you know what you need, a set of basic binoculars is what this is and hopefully they'll fill your needs. There are too many untruths in the product description to justify the asking price. These are apparently 'HD'. Um, no, they're not - but our eyes are!