We also bought the Zen Ray for our trip, both to Alaska and then to Africa. We also had a cheap Bushnell auto focus that we had bought at Costco. The Bushnell were great, the autofocus was perfect, and for about $25 could not be beat. We did use a Cannon with image stabilization and they were great.

I would stay away from the Zen Ray. We bought them but in retrospect they seem to "advertise" on these forums.