I've been looking for a long time for a pair of ~25mm roof binos for hiking, with long eye relief for use with eyeglasses. When I saw this new update of the BV 8x25 I thought I'd give it a try. Quick review, after a two-hour session looking at birds at my local patch, with my 7x26 Bushnell Customs also handy:
The Minox are lightweight, and offer great handling with the open-bridge design. I have big hands and found them very comfortable. The single hinge makes for easy adjustment and one-hand use. Long straight roof-prism barrels make pointing instinctive, so fast-moving subjects can be picked up quickly. Adequate eye relief for eyeglasses - the 16.5mm claimed eye relief is probably accurate. I have to press the Minox pretty firmly against my spectacles but can just about see the whole field with my eyeglasses on, which is unusual for a compact. (Effective eye relief is maybe 1 or 2mm longer in the Bushnells, a difference big enough to notice: I don't need to press the Bushnells against my spectacles to see the whole field.)
Build quality fair. Hinge is stiff enough to hold position and moves smoothly. Focus movement is quick and smooth but doesn't feel very precise. Diopter adjustment lacks a lock, but is stiff enough to hold position. Diopter adjustment doesn't feel very smooth, but is adequate. Eyecups twist out with 3 possible settings. There is some grease visible inside the eyecups, on the helical threads they twist out on. The grease is deep enough inside that it'd be hard to touch unless you have slim fingers and made a real effort, but I wonder if it will become runny over time - especially if the binos are ever left in a hot car. Overall feel and finish are very good; the skin of the binocular is fairly thin and not soft or sticky, but offers plenty of traction.
Optically, the Model 62059 has a large sweet-spot, low distortion, no noticeable chromatic aberration and a reasonably wide field of 6.9 degrees (a pretty wide field for a compact with long eye relief). Pupils are not truncated and appear close to round. Good brightness for a compact. But they're not very sharp, with weak contrast and lack "pop." Comparing to my Bushnell 7x26, the view in the Minox looked flat. It was easier to see fine feathery detail in the Bushnells, despite the slightly lower power. With the quick pointing of the Minox I was able to get on birds in flight just a little faster, and the optical quality was adequate to identify many species. But in the Bushnells, birds appeared more colorful and were more "fun" to look at. Glare control in the Minox is mediocre. There were no obvious flares or ghost images off of small bright reflections, but looking in the direction of the sun on a bright overcast morning there were large arcs of pale glare in the lower part of the view. Not awful, and not sure if it's fair to expect better at this price, but overall not impressive optically.
Binos came well packed, with a nice padded strap. The nylon case looks cheap but should be serviceable. No caps, either front or rear.
The Minox are lightweight, and offer great handling with the open-bridge design. I have big hands and found them very comfortable. The single hinge makes for easy adjustment and one-hand use. Long straight roof-prism barrels make pointing instinctive, so fast-moving subjects can be picked up quickly. Adequate eye relief for eyeglasses - the 16.5mm claimed eye relief is probably accurate. I have to press the Minox pretty firmly against my spectacles but can just about see the whole field with my eyeglasses on, which is unusual for a compact. (Effective eye relief is maybe 1 or 2mm longer in the Bushnells, a difference big enough to notice: I don't need to press the Bushnells against my spectacles to see the whole field.)
Build quality fair. Hinge is stiff enough to hold position and moves smoothly. Focus movement is quick and smooth but doesn't feel very precise. Diopter adjustment lacks a lock, but is stiff enough to hold position. Diopter adjustment doesn't feel very smooth, but is adequate. Eyecups twist out with 3 possible settings. There is some grease visible inside the eyecups, on the helical threads they twist out on. The grease is deep enough inside that it'd be hard to touch unless you have slim fingers and made a real effort, but I wonder if it will become runny over time - especially if the binos are ever left in a hot car. Overall feel and finish are very good; the skin of the binocular is fairly thin and not soft or sticky, but offers plenty of traction.
Optically, the Model 62059 has a large sweet-spot, low distortion, no noticeable chromatic aberration and a reasonably wide field of 6.9 degrees (a pretty wide field for a compact with long eye relief). Pupils are not truncated and appear close to round. Good brightness for a compact. But they're not very sharp, with weak contrast and lack "pop." Comparing to my Bushnell 7x26, the view in the Minox looked flat. It was easier to see fine feathery detail in the Bushnells, despite the slightly lower power. With the quick pointing of the Minox I was able to get on birds in flight just a little faster, and the optical quality was adequate to identify many species. But in the Bushnells, birds appeared more colorful and were more "fun" to look at. Glare control in the Minox is mediocre. There were no obvious flares or ghost images off of small bright reflections, but looking in the direction of the sun on a bright overcast morning there were large arcs of pale glare in the lower part of the view. Not awful, and not sure if it's fair to expect better at this price, but overall not impressive optically.
Binos came well packed, with a nice padded strap. The nylon case looks cheap but should be serviceable. No caps, either front or rear.
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