Last year, I decided to try a couple of the new Minox ZA5 scopes, based on some reviews of their glass quality. Now, I'm posting this from the perspective of a military shooter and civilian hunter/shooter, that gets to look through a lot of different stuff...but not the perspective of any sort of optical expert or glass snob, as it were.
Keeping in mind that (I gather) Minox is an old hand at quality glass, but a rather new entry into riflescopes, some growing pains and learning were to be expected.
Scopes originally purchased:

ZA5 2-10x40 Duplex
ZA5i 2-10x50 Illum. Duplex

The 40 was mounted on a .358 win encore bbl for the last 9 mos, and the 50 rode on a 7.62 AR for the same time. The .358 probably saw between 150-200 rounds between range stuff and hunting/shooting 5-6 deer (can't recall if one was with it or another encore bbl). The 50mm had (best count) 470 rds of range work, but no hog herds showed when I hunted it. Bad luck rifle, I guess. Both were excellent in low light, with good reticle visibility on the 40, and a slight illum flare on the 50, at lowest brightness. Overall, as bright as anything else I could compare them too, and brighter than many. I did not notice the flare issues in low sun, to the extreme I've seen mentioned. I did notice some slightly at an edge opposite the sun. Eye relief was great, though the eye boxes were a bit small, compared to Leupold or Sightron, for instance. Still, both worked very well. While I'd rather not have the flashy minox lettering, it never spooked any game.;) The rubber power adjustment rings are a little stiff, and mushy to turn, but that's a personal thing, not a knock, as they worked fine (to a point, covered later). Windage/elevation adjustments were positive and accurate, and both boxed fine, initially.

At the end of the season, I went to the range to check them again, and found a few issues. Well, I had already noticed the 40 power ring starting to have a 'slip' or loose spot when reversing twist on it to go up or down in power. At the range, the 40 showed it was out of zero by about 3", and I double checked my mounts, but they're overkill and everything was solid, so I re-zeroed it and boxed it, and it was a sort of quadrilateral, that wouldn't close....wish I had pics. This scope/rifle got bounced around in trucks/ATVs/brush/rocks the most, so maybe that was it, though it didn't look it, as they include a decent scopetector cover. Okay, so maybe my bad luck is to blame? Liked the scope. Next, I decide to pull out the AR, and something rattled when I took the scopetector off: threaded ring over the objective lens was loose! Hadn't noticed it before, and there were no issues with it, otherwise....probably could've tightened it back down and been fine, but it shouldn't happen. I figured Doug at CLNY would for sure take care of me, but I figured I'd just see how their CS/Warranty is ....

Last edited by hh4whiskey; 05/14/14.