Interesting reading...I have one Bushnell TC of 2009 vintage and it has worked reliably in the field and taken many, many good pictures for me this year. However, from day 1 it has had a problem with the menu screen not working right, but because I got it many months after I ordered it, it was backordered, I just deal with that. But by the sounds of this thread, I am glad I got it in 2009, and not in 2010.
I am not defending or attacking Bushnell per se, but I do have some work related experience with electronic devices from China and all I can say is that this doesn't surprise me. With the hyper-dynamic overseas sourcing situation these days, the name brand on the front cover has virtually no meaning. "Fill in the blank" name of electronic device might really be made via one company one year, or even month, and then be made in some other factory the next year. Name brands mean almost nothing in many cases when it comes to Chinese sourced electronics.
Let's just say that in the electronics world the emphasis is on low cost and NOT on quality control.
Unfortunately, because cheap electronic goods like this are made in huge batches at a time and the lag time between when they are made and when they are actually used here in the US is quite long, there can easily be thousands and thousands of them "out there" before they really come to understand that there is a problem.
Now once a company knows they have a serious, systemic problem, a problem that the solution to which may be expensive enough to severely damage the long term survival of the company, what do you think happens...they go ahead and ship them anyway.
All of that to say this...it sounds like the 2010 Bushnell's are a pig in a poke, but next year that could easily be true of whatever other brand is hot this year. Because no one will think twice before switching the actual manufacturing facility/company if there is a buck to be saved.
