I just bought a new pair of Pentax DCF SP 10x43 binos for an upcoming Mule deer hunt out west in New Mexico. I decided to do a head to head with my Minox BD 6.5x32 IF binos.

Well first off coming out of the 70 degree air conditioned house into the 95 degree humid summer caused the Minoxs to fog right up, the Pentax never fogged. It was actually a real pain to get rid of the fog in the Minoxs to even do the test. Big advantage to the Pentax so far.

Clarity also goes to the Pentax but the Minoxs have excellent glass as well, the Pentax is just slightly sharper, clearer, better.

IF or individual focus vs center focus. I actually like IF a bit better. You have to keep your finger on the focus wheel with the Pentax to get it right. The Minoxs are set it and forget it!

Comfort goes to Pentax with the adjustable eye relief and nice slim design. I still like the Minoxs a lot, just not as much.

Low light goes to the Pentax, the Minoxs are bright but the Pentax is brighter longer. There was a difference looking into the shadows.

Hunter use and friendliness. I don't think this is covered enough in reviews. For anything in the Northeast the Minox 6.5 is the way to go. The field of view is huge, the binos are short and handy. The IF focus keeps them perfectly focused the whole hunt. For the close range and quick deer sneaking up on you these features are just ideal for the NE. The is also no "shake" the you see in higher power binos and you can look through them for hours with no issues.

Now outwest or where you can see farther and have time and NEED to really zoom in on items far away the Pentax are clearly the better glass. They are light, crystal clear, very small to no problems with shaking hands (at least for me), nicely shaped, with great locking features.

I guess the point I'm making is that the Pentaxs are a better binos overall but not as well suited to close in hunting or bowhunter use.

Something tells me I may be brining BOTH with me on many hunts and vacations.

Good review. Thanks for the post comparing them.
I bought three pairs of the Minox 6.5x32's, one for my son, one for my neighbor, and one for me. We hunt thick cover here, and swamps, so the 6.5x's are the ticket. I find them very user friendly with great FOV and good eye relief, and the weight is right at about 20 oz.
Never looked through the Pentax though.

Geoff,

Comparing a 10x and a 6x binocular is something of an apples and oranges comparison. It is really difficult to say which provides the RELATIVELY better picture, simply because the magnification is so different. Also, I assume that the fogging you are speaking of is external condensation. That will differ with the surface of the glass and can be negated by the proper cleaning and optionally a treatment with an anti-fogging coating. But thanks for your report as it is very helpful.

I heartily agree with your comments on your preference for IF. Under most hunting conditions, the IF is by far preferable. It is only in situations like bird watching, where you may be switching focus from "close" to "very close" as a bird flits from limb to limb that the CF offers an advanatage. Otherwise, the CF is heavier, more complicated and expensive to build, provides another source of possible moisture infiltration, is less rugged and more likely to be knocked out of alignment, and always getting inadvertantly moved out of focus.

A better comparison with the 10x Pentax might be the 9.5 x 40 Minox IF. I bought one of these Minox a couple of months ago and the jury is still out. The biggest problem I see with it is that there is obviously some distortion near the outer edge of the field that is distracting, especially when you pan with the instrument. However, its resolution in the center 90% of the field seems very good. I haven't used them under field conditions, but will do so this fall and will have a better handle on their utility.

I had both of these and they are really not comparable. I have since sold the sp
s and upgraded to Ultravids. The IF is NOT a feature I like, it takes no time to focus the Pentax Sp's, the one feature that I never thought of that I really use is the ability to focus into the bush past the treeline which you can't do with the IF. Optical clarity isn't even close between the two with the pentax being dramatically better, also there isn't a big difference in size. From and ergonomic sense the eye peices on the minox are sharp. They are OK to throw in your truck and use ocassionally, but that is it. The Sp's are excellent bino's in just abotu every sense.