Home > Consumer Reviews > Steiner 8X22 Miniscope

Unfortunately, the Steiner Mini Scope appears to be no longer available. I bought mine at an online auction for about US$50. Some camera and outdoor shops still have new old stock available. It was originally sold in a nice satin chrome finish or olive drab color, and includes a leather pouch.

I bought my Mini Scope a replacement for an old Zeiss 8x20 monocular, which itself was a nice instrument. However, in terms of clarity, brightness, edge-to-edge sharpness, and field of view, the Steiner is better. I would give the Zeiss slightly higher marks for its lens coatings; the Steiner is a bit susceptible to flare, especially when viewing bright lights directly in low light (street lights or the moon, for example).

About the only other disadvantage to the Mini Scope is that it does not have an eyelet to attach a neck strap. I managed to tie a nylon lanyard around the eyepiece, which works fine.

Overall, this is a fine little monocular that you will really use. Highly recommended.

Bought this 2001. It is amazing in clarity. I ride horses, ATVs so they are in an environment full of dust, subject to bumping a LOT, but no scratches. BTW, this only weighs 3 OZ (despite what the amazon ad says, I weighed them). They are very tiny. I really like these. I have even dropped them in their thin leather flexible case from a horse (about 5 feet up), & still no problem.
Incredible clarity & durability!

Small, lightweight with very bright optics. Fits in a coat pocket and it great for spotting shots at the range to about 100 feet-- I use it for match pistol shooting when I am too lazy to set up my spotting scope. It would also be excellent to carry for impromtu bird watching.

The optics are superb, it's actually slightly brighter then the human eye, at least to me... I would recommend this to anybody... One thing that is bad about it is holding the lil' bugger, you have to hold it in a strange fashion, that makes you look weird :-)