I have (and love) a set of 8.5x43 I bought from Doug years back. I used their warranty service once and was beyond impressed - that said I have concerns for the future.
With Blaser apparently discontinuing the high end Minox binos, what does this mean for my warranty? If I need a replacement in the future what can I expect to receive?

I hope this is not true. I have a pair of 10 x 43 that have been amazing. I need to send them in to get cleaned up. Damn.

What do you mean cleaning them up ? I would like to learn about what that means.

Sorry I was in a hurry this morning. I have had them for over 10 years and want to send them in to see if there are any issues that need addressed. I have no interest in buying new glass and want these to last. I spoke to Minox last year about this and they said send them in but I never got around to doing it. That is all.

I do not see Minox listed on Cameraland's web site anymore.

The HG line is not listed on the Minox site anymore either. Only the mid grade BL line.

I’m hoping somebody here (maybe even Doug) might have some insight.

Surprised that Doug continue to push such companies that come and go like Zen-Ray. Well, maybe not...

Minox is a subsidiary of Leica. I doubt service is going anywhere.

Not anymore they’re not. They’ve been owned by Blaser for several years now.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2859813980/minox-leica

I have 2 HG Minox binoculars a 10x43 and a 8x56....great binoculars...but I wonder about warranty also...
also have a few of the BL HD models..that are really decent glass for the money....

I have some German made BLs and find them to be absolutely fantastic in every way. My favorite glasses for sure. I doubt Minox is getting out of the high end...Blaser is a high end company. They are probably just shuffling the deck. They have gotten out of imported scopes and their new offerings are all MIG...imagine we will see the same for their binos

My question is "what the heck does Blaser know about optics? They've only been in the game for a couple of years now and have someone else manufacture their overpriced glass now. They don't make squat.

Beretta owns Steiner as well. Seems like brands are trying to build more complete product portfolios. Let’s hope they let Minox be Minox.

minox scope warranty = nightmare

My experience with them last year was excellent.

I have had excellent warranty service from Minox.It does not matter who owns them,they will service what they make.Most products a 10 year supply of parts is on hand by law.

What companies do I "continue to push such companies that come and go like Zen-Ray"?

When we sold Zen-Ray we made it abundantly clear that Zen-Ray was owned and run by a guy names Charles and if/when something happens to Charles the future of Zen-Ray is questionable. Well, 2 Octobers ago Charles stopped returning calls and e-mails. It's as if he fell off the face of the planet.

Charles (Zen-Ray) knew where to source product. He didn't do or offer anything revolutionary. He sold the same products many other bands offered at a lower price. He did this for 12-13 years and then disappeared. There are similar companies that popped up in the last few years, started by guys who have been in this industry for a long time who also know where to source product. Tract, Maven, and others. These are direct to consumer companies and offer, from what I understand, good products at sharp pricing. Will one of these guys who used to work at a major brand be offered a great job with good pay and benefits by a major company and decide that's better for him and his family and disappear like Zen-Ray did. Maybe, who knows.

We represent what we have found to be quality products from reputable companies we feel will be here to assist with any issues.

Many of you are aware we have been in talks with March scopes for a while now. We want to offer their scopes, however, we will not do so until they have some quality infrastructure here in the US. We choose not to sell their scopes at the moment as we do not feel that having to send any issues back to Japan is efficient.

When Minox was under the Leica umbrella we handled Minox. About a year after Blaser took it over (IMO to get the intellectual property to offer under the Blaser brand) we stopped handling Minox. In that year Minox did nothing new, had basically nobody at SHOT at their booth and Blaser showed little interest in non-Blaser dealers when it came to Minox.
We are still a Minox authorized dealer, however, we no longer stock their optics and only handle it as special order

Thank you Doug for the information and response.

Im going to give Doug a vote of personal confidence. I can't count on two hands the amount of times I've called and spoken to he or Neil about items i didn't buy from them...and in some cases items they don't even sell for opinions and general questions. They have always gone above and beyond. Recent examples are an Olympus camera i recently sold in the classifieds and a european binocular i recently traded into.

They are first class...and really know how to take care of customers...even pockets hanging out broke-asses like me.

P.S. Ill get my lay-away taken care of ASAP guys LOL

P.P.S Zan-Ray's 13 year run was far better than half the rifle companies people wax poetically about on this very forum..cant fault Camera Land NY for that

I’ve never had an issue with my HG 10x43. Quite frankly they are excellent glass. I’ve gotten a lot of great service out of them. I bought mine from Doug many years ago. At the time a big purchase for me in the bingo world. As far as cleaning them, I’ve sent them back twice for general inspection and cleaning. Above and beyond is an understatement. The first go round they even put objective covers on them. When I bought mine, they didn’t come with the binocular. They were all over the service end of it. The last time I got them back was last year and I’ve not even taken them out of the case to keep them perfect. I bought a set of Ultravid HD’s.

I have a Minox bino and a spotting scope. Hopefully no issues with a warranty, so far no need, but one never knows.

I just picked up a German made pair and called Minox and they were super helpful and very knowledgeable fwiw

All BS aside...they are fantastic

Minox is still in business. They just quit making that line. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over warranty concerns

Hey JG.

I haven't personally eyeballed or handled the Blaser 1-7x28, but it looks good as far as FOV & specs go, the 28mm should be a nice bump compared to a similarly tube'd 24mm unit.

I hear good things about Blaser's from folks in the industry though.

Looks like Minox handles the tac end, and Blaser focuses on the (discerning) Euro lowlight driven hunter scene, to market along with their excellent rifles? It's nice to see them offer a ring-less rail mount as well.

https://www.blaser.de/us/products/blaser-optics/blaser-optics-infinity-series/

As far as knowing how to build a rifle scope, I imagine they'd be no different than Airbus (Hensoldt), Cassidian (Zeiss expertise), Beretta (Steiner) etc etc.

I'd like to see this Blaser 1-7x28 with a dot/hash basic holdover/slider reticle...would be a near perfect DMR optic.

I generally have JG on ignore. I am moderately certain that he will invariably say something silly and I do not have a need to read it, but someone asked me to take a look at the thread and address some misconceptions.

Blaser and GSO (German Sports Optics) are both owned by the same holding company that also owns a few other things in the same general market space: Mauser, SIg Sauer, Voere, GSG, Hammerli, Rigby and probably a few others I can not think of off hand.

German Sport Optics was originally formed when the same parent company purchased Optronika and Minox and merged them together as a design and manufacturing center. Later, they designed another line of optics products to be marketed as Blaser, aimed primarily at the highest end of the hunting market, with some scopes really designed to match Blaser rifles well. Minox is more of a generalized optics company for them that aims to have a broad coverage of the sporting optics market.

Since Blaser already had a pretty nicely equipped facility in the US, and they needed to support their Blaser optics product line anyway, they consolidated all of their optics support network in the same place. I had an issue with a Minox spotter a couple of years ago and Blaser took care of it quickly and courteously. I suspect that their ability to support the product only got better since then.

Companies start and discontinue different product lines all the time and I am not terribly concerned about GSO/Minox/Balser long term prospects. They are doing a lot of things well and have some interesting things coming up.

ILya

There is no reason to send any binocular or optic in for service that has no issues.

Geez..........

🙄

I often think about tract and maven pulling a zen ray. It’s why I’ve never considered them regardless of how good their products are. Products are only as good as the service supporting them. I know a bunch of fellow birders that have trashed zen ray glasses as they couldn’t get parts and service anymore and a couple that lost their products when they were in for service and zen vanished into the night

Thank you Doug and ILya for your replies.