Minox X-Lite & X-Active Series (3 Viewers)

[labrador72]

Hi all,

I have a friend who asked me some to recommend a pair of binoculars to bring along while hiking in the mountains.

I recently got a pair of Zeiss Terra ED Pocket 8x25 for myself and couldn't be happier but those would be well beyond his budget which is €/$ 150-200 max.

A couple of years ago I got to borrowed a pair of Minox BV from somebody and considering the price range found them to be pretty good in terms of both image and build quality. Minox have new series now and they both look almost identical to the BV binoculars I tried.

So I thought to advise my friend to get a pair of Minox X-Lite 8x26 or maybe 8x34 if he wants more of an all-rounder.
They are pretty light - 270g and 470g respectively.
https://www.minox.com/en/x-lite/

I also took a look at the X-Active series which looks like the successor of the BV series. The 8x25 and 8x33 binoculars are marginally heavier but seem to be superior optically with multi-coating and a wider field of view as well as a better warranty.
https://www.minox.com/en/x-active/
The X-Active series is more expensive, a bit beyond his budget, but not by much.

These series seem to be pretty new though so I haven't been able to find any real reviews.
Even the Minox website is a bit scant on specs.

I was wondering if any of you had a chance to use any of the Minox X-Lite or X-Active binos.
Any feedback on their image quality?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

 

[labrador72]

Since I didn't get any replies and because there isn't much information about the new Minox binoculars, I decided to check directly with Minox as well as a couple of their retailers in North America and Europe.

Aside for the chassis - which is in polycarbonate for the BV models and aluminum for the X-Active models - the main difference in terms of optics is the coating process applied to the lenses. It has been supposedly improved so the binoculars from the X-Active series will have somewhat higher contrast and slightly higher light transmission compared to those from the BV series.

One of the European retailers also mentioned that the X-HD binoculars, which replaced the old BL HD series, have new optimized ED lenses offering improved contrast. I thought I'd mention it since the higher-end BL HD series seemed to be fairly popular when I searched older threads on Minox binos.

 

[kennykerberos]

Thx for the info. I really like my Minox 8x33 BL HD v.2. It would be interesting to compare the new models to these.