TSJ Series: MINOX BL 10x52 BR

I would be quite happy to carry the MINOX BL 10x42 BR for any sort of open-country hunting.

The new Minox BL 10x52 BR has fully multicoated lenses and phase-corrected prisms, all pretty much standard stuff in today’s optics market. This new Minox is a little different, though, since it has what Minox calls their “comfort bridge” hinge between the two barrels of the binocular. This is their variation on bridge hinges, rather than the longer piano-type hinge on the standard Minox BL. According to Minox, the comfort bridge “enables a reliable, single-hand operation” and “an excellent grip—even in extreme situations.”

In other words, because there’s no long hinge down the length of both barrels, the individual barrels can be gripped more easily in one hand. This is actually true. It’s much easier to carry something that our hand can be wrapped around, instead of just gripped from side to side. An easy comparison would be a baseball bat versus a similar-size piece of 2x4. When we’re able to wrap our fingers around a binocular barrel, we don’t really need “ergonomic” grips.