Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Minox HG 8x33 MIG

I have a pair of Vortex 6x32's that are spectacular for the money. Bright, clear, sharp, great color rendition, great eye relief, compact and light weight. This has led me to become interested in a pair of 8x30's for hunting. I have aquired eyeglasses for astigmatism over the last few years and eye relief in my binoculars is critical. Unfortunately, most binoculars currently offered in this size have less than 16mm eye relief and won't work well for my needs.

I called Camera Land and spoke with Neil about my needs and my budget. After a brief discussion, Neil suggested I try a pair of Minox HG 8x33's.

http://www.minox.com/index.php?id=hg_technical_data&L=2

The Camer Land website has a typo, listing eye relief at 15mm. Eye relief is actually 16.5mm, verified by my ability to actually comfortably use these binos with my glasses on - more on that later.

Neil mentioned that he had a demo pair available that he could make me an even better deal that was listed on their website. I gave him my information and asked him to send them to me. I received my binos a few days later (pleasantly surprised given the difficulties getting things shipped quickly around the holidays) and was able to take them on a recent hunt in Alabama.

I'll start by offering the only petty criticisms I have for these binoculars:

1) The case feels a little inferior compared to my Vortex Viper HD's and my Zeiss Conquest HD's. Both of the other cases also have a place to store a lens cloth, the Minox case does not. I mainly use the case to store the binoculars in the safe when not in use, so not much of a problem...




2) The focus knob requires less than 1 full turn for full range of adjustment. This can make focusing a little more difficult, particularly noticable when switching back and forth between binoculars. Once I got accustomed to using them, it really wasn't a problem.


3) My demo pair have a minor cosmetic scuff on the housing. It bothered me so badly that I haven't even bothered to try and wipe it off. I came in at 1/2 of stated budget to Neil on the phone!



Size wise the Minox HG 8x33's are nearly identical in size to the Vortex Viper HD 6x32's. They are a few ounces heavier as well, but my desire to have 8x binos the same size/weight as the Vipers with useable eye relief for eye glasses was met. The 16.5mm eye relief allows me to comfortably wear my eye glasses while using the binoculars. I spent many hours glassing with them over the last few days and am very happy with the eye relief. Previous attempts to use simliar binos w/ 15mm eye relief left me dissatisfied.

The image is bright and clear, very low distortion. I did not detect any chromatic aberration in my time using them. I found the image to be almost the equal of my stellar Zeiss Conquest HD 8x42's.

I made a special point of using them till last legal light on these past moonless.overcast evenings in the woods of Alabama to evaluate their low light performance. I was pleased to find that I was still able to use them to evaluate deer down to last legal light. Comparing them to the larger Zeiss 8x42's, they are giving up a bit of low light performance in the last few minutes, but again still very useable. I was actually pleased that I could tell a difference between the 8x33's and 8x42's in low light performance at 48years old.

Overall I'm very pleased with them. If you are in the market for a pair of 8x33's they're worth evaluating.




David

I own the Minox(MIG) HG 8x42. Absolutely love that binocular! Also bought as a demo from Cameraland.....heck of a bargain!!!! Mine are the APO version. To my 48yr old eyes they are a step up from the Zeiss Conquest HD 8x42 which is quite a compliment, in my opinion, as the Zeiss itself is great glass!

Leftybolt

I have the Minox HG 8x56. They are outstanding. I always wanted to try the 8x33 version, but haven't had the opportunity.

I tried a pair from Doug and swapped them for some Leicas. Glass was great, but I couldn't get past the shiny sliver huge focus knob and trim for hunting.

Doug and Camerland are the best.

I have used the Minox HG 8x33 for the past 8 years. Elk hunting carry glass. Perfect size and nice optics..

Would buy same again

They made a version for a while that had black/charcoal knobs, etc. You might ask Doug, he sold them for a while.