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Message: <blockquote data-quote="solentbirder" data-source="post: 1000992" data-attributes="member: 23216">Hi Bob,In terms of optical quality, my experience is that the Minox 15x58 approaches the quality of some of the top porro-prism designs such as the Fujinon 16x70 and even the Zeiss 15x60 (at least my sample does). Last year I travelled a very long way to look at a used pair of Zeiss 15x60 being offered for sale. I took the Minox with me, expecting it would be poor in comparison. I was surprised (and rather disappointed after my long journey!) to find that the Minox was brighter, crisper and had more natural colour. The Zeiss 15x60 was more than 10 years old so this may have been a factor. However, it confirmed to me that the Minox is indeed very good. In comparison to cheaper large binoculars such as Orion 15x70 it's in another league. I'm not familiar with the Garrett Signature 22x85 so I couldn't fairly comment.I understand what you mean about preferring a binocular. Even though I have a good scope I enjoy the view more with powerful binoculars (that goes for astronomy too). However, the optical quality of scopes is very high these days so you'd most likely see a better image in something like the Kowa you mentioned. At the end of the day it really comes down to personal perference. A technically better image in a scope is no advantage if you don't like using it. Hope that's some help.John</blockquote>