By Dallas Walker – As published in the October 2026 issue of The Report

Yahtzee! That’s honestly the only way I can describe what ZeroTech has done here because somewhere in their R&D department somebody clearly slapped the table, scared the interns, and decided the original Thrive needed to come back angrier. 

And somehow…it worked. 

I’ve had the Thrive HD 20-60×85 ED floating around in the ute and bouncing around in my kit for the past couple of months now – not ‘looked through it twice while standing in the backyard pretending I’m a professional’ either. Actual use. Long range days, hunting trips and cold mornings where your fingers stop functioning properly. Dust. Wind. That weird phase where every shooter becomes a part-time meteorologist because mirage suddenly matters more than emotions. 

You know, normal activities. 

First thing you notice compared to the original Thrive – and this is immediate – is the glass. The HD ED upgrade isn’t subtle. It’s brighter, cleaner, sharper right through the edges and overall, just calmer to look through? Hard to explain unless you spend stupid amounts of time behind optics (#guilty). 

It’s like cleaning your sunglasses after convincing yourself they were ‘fine’ for six months. Turns out they were not fine at all, but you became very good at gaslighting yourself. 

At 20x, it’s super usable. Stable. Comfortable. You’re not fighting every tiny movement or breeze trying to wobble the image into another postcode. Then you crank it toward 60x, and it still holds together surprisingly well. That’s the part that caught me off guard a bit because usually somewhere in high magnification territory things start getting weird. Soft edges, mushy detail, existential regret. 

Spotting impacts at distance is easy enough, reading mirage is clean, and you can properly assess animals before committing yourself to a climb that seemed like a fantastic idea from 800 metres away. And, look, every hunter knows this feeling. 

You glass an animal. You think ‘that’s not far’. Then halfway up the ridge you begin negotiating with God and your lower back, simultaneously (#characterbuilding). 

The 85mm objective lens deserves a proper mention too because low-light performance is genuinely impressive for the money. Early mornings and last light are where average optics quietly fall apart and hope you don’t notice. This doesn’t. The image hangs on longer than I expected it to, which is unfortunate for the local pig population who were absolutely minding their own business while I conducted very serious optical testing. 

During the past few months, it’s done a bit of everything. Spotting hits at long range, watching trace, hunting, and general glassing. Even looking at hillsides for no reason whatsoever because once you own good glass, you suddenly become interested in absolutely everything. Tree lines. Fence posts. Distant cows. Your neighbour assembling something badly. Relax, Gary. It’s not surveillance. I’m evaluating edge clarity. 

What genuinely surprised me though is the pricing. At $1199 RRP, it sits in a weirdly good spot where it feels premium without entering the ‘I’ll just hide the receipt and deal with this later’ category. Because some optics are incredible and then you see the price and briefly consider taking up fishing instead, but only briefly. 

This feels balanced, like somebody at ZeroTech actually understands Australian shooters. We want performance, but we’d also quite like to afford fuel and a servo Four’N Twenty meat pie on the drive home. Crazy concept, right?  

And honestly, while it’s obviously aimed at hunters and shooters, this thing would suit anyone who appreciates decent optics. Bird watchers. Wildlife observers. People who enjoy staring at distant objects and pretending it’s a skill. Good glass is good glass. 

Then there’s the warranty side of things. ZeroTech backing it with a lifetime warranty actually means something these days because some companies treat warranties like hostage negotiations written by lawyers. This feels more like: Yep. Use it hard. We built it for that. 

After a couple months with it, this doesn’t feel like a gimmicky refresh or some marketing department rebuild where they changed one screw and added ‘HD’ to the box. The original Thrive was already solid, proven and reliable. 

This version just sharpens everything that mattered in the first place. No dramatic reinvention. No nonsense. Just better glass. 

And honestly? That’s probably exactly what most shooters wanted. 

zerotech.com.au