Binoculars of Note
Minox HG Series
High-end Binocular Round-Up, 2008
by Michael and Diane Porter
Minox binoculars used to be made by Leica. In 2001 Minox went independent and started competing for their own share of the high-end binocular market. Minox has a nice innovation in the focus knob that even Leica hasn't used yet.
 Minox's focus knob shows the distance to the object, in yards. The secret is in the special gearing, which allows the entire focus range within one turn of the wheel. At close distances, it focuses faster, while maintaining slower, precise focusing at a distance. Nice feature, unique to Minox.
The simple, elegant binocular is comfortable to hold and beautiful to look at. Minox HGs are unusually lightweight. The 8.5x43 model is a mere 22.9 ounces, the lightest of all the full-sized 8-power binoculars in our survey. The 10x52 weighs only 27.3 ounces, remarkable for a binocular with a 52mm objective lens.
In our High-end Binocular Round-up (Bird Watcher's Digest, September, 2008), the Minox HGs proved to have excellent optical quality. We deemed them a good value, as shown by their optical quality score of 4.8 on our Ratings Chart. The 8.5x43 model scored lower on image quality than the other two models only because of its field of view, which at 321 feet was narrower than other 8.5x brands in the survey.
You can find the Minox HG series in 8.5x43, 10x43, 8x33, 10x52, and 8.5x52.
 Copyright 2008 by Michael and Diane Porter.
This article appears as part of the High-end Binoculars Round Up in the September, 2008, issue of Bird Watcher's Digest.
Photo of magazine copyright 2008 Bird Watcher's Digest. Image of Minox focus wheel is copyright Michael and Diane Porter 2008. |
