Maven B.5 18×56 Mil Binoculars Review: My Intro to High End

Earlier this year, a series of paid articles for magazines and successful affiliate sales resulted in me having a glut of funds to invest in some new gear. I felt like I was reasonably well-stocked on guns and gear. One suggestion that came up was observation and spotting optics. To date, I have a very cheap Bushnell spotting scope that I purchased early in my shooting journey and never use. Aside from that, I have a pair of Trijicon 8×42 binoculars I received as a Christmas gift in 2018. Most of the time, I do my spotting using the rifle optics themselves, provided they have sufficient magnification. These are…fine, for the most part.

Better would be a set of optics that I could set up and keep fixed on a target, or target zone, and use for doing corrections. That sent me down the rabbit hole of a new spotting scope or a higher magnification set of binoculars and where to spend about $1400 to $2000 to do it. Today I’m telling you about the Maven B.5 18×56 Mil binoculars that were the first up to bat.

Maven Optics

Maven Optics is a name that came up repeatedly in my searches, for both spotters and binoculars. They have a variety of optics at different price brackets, and have a particularly strong following with the hunting crowd. The B.5 series binoculars represent their highest end, and the model with a mil reticle in them that I’m reviewing has a list price of $1,700. While that isn’t the most expensive optic I’ve ever looked through (and it’s still half the price of the so-called “Alpha” glass like the Swarovski NL Series) it’s certainly the most expensive pair of binoculars I’ve ever spent significant time with.

Maven itself is a relatively small company who isn’t well known in the “tactical” space. They don’t use dealers or distributors, and sell everything direct through their own website. This allows them to set lower pricing on their optics since they don’t have to account for profit margins along the sales chain. They get items from their manufacturers and then sell directly to the public.

Like other well known optics companies, they use manufacturers in China, the Philippines, and Japan depending on the desired price point and level of performance. Their highest end observation optics, the B series for binoculars and S series for spotters, say they are assembled in the USA using Japanese components.

Making the Ask

Since I was looking to compare the options of binos and spotters, I took a gamble and asked Maven if they would send me a pair to review and let me get a sense of what I preferred between binoculars or spotters. To my surprise, they agreed, and sent me a pair of the new B.5 18×56 mil binos on loan. Of note, Maven offers this same kind of program to anyone who wants to “try before you buy” with their optics for two weeks without actually buying them.

Bottom Line Up Front

In full disclosure, Maven loaned me these binoculars for free so I could do this review. I try not to let that taint my opinion, though.

The B.5 18×46 Mil is at the top end of Maven’s binocular optics. With a retail price of $1700, they aren’t as expensive as well-known “Alpha” glass that’s $3k+, but they are also a significant expense that most people want to weigh heavily. I used them in a variety of conditions for many different tasks, and I can comfortably say that the B.5 18×56 binos are absolutely fantastic to look through and use.

However, I probably would not buy these myself. I don’t think the built-in reticle makes sense for a pair of binoculars and isn’t worth the extra expense. So were I to flop down the cash, I would probably still be looking at the Maven B.5 series, but would pick one of the non-reticle options and at a lower magnification level, something like the 12×56 or 15×56 model. These other options give a wider field of view, better hand stabilization, and better light transmission compared to the 18x (it’s physics). Alternatively, I would also consider the 12×50 B.6 model. All of these come in several hundred dollars cheaper than the 18×56 Mil model.

Now, if Maven were to re-think their reticle in the future and use something more appropriate for the format, I could get behind it.

Binos vs Spotting Scopes

Let’s start with tackling this question. For now, I don’t actually think one option is clearly better than the other. As with many things, the answer depends on how you want to use it.

Spotting scopes have higher magnification capabilities, which means you can see “out there” and not just identify a target but also discern fine details about the target. I’ve seen hunters talk about using expensive spotting scopes to count the number points on a deer’s antlers at 600-800 yards so they could figure out if it was worth hunting or not. On the other hand, spotting scopes tend to be large and heavy, usually requiring a companion tripod to stabilize with.

Binoculars have an advantage when it comes to field of view while also being smaller and lighter. I’ve noticed a trend in competition shooting with more people moving to a pair of mounted binoculars rather than spotting scopes to quickly scan an area and spot hits. You sacrifice raw magnification power for speed of identifying targets. Also, binoculars tend to be far more comfortable to stay behind for long periods of time since both eyes having magnification means reduced eye strain. I find binoculars to be more stable for hand holding as well, though the diminishes as they get heavier and higher in magnification. Luckily, you can also mount them to tripods for stability.

Maven B.5 18×56 Mil

I chose the Maven B.5 18×56 Mil for review mainly because of the reticle.

I’ve had a little bit of experience with reticles inside of handheld optics before. Granted, this was on the lower end of the market with my Vortex Solo R/T monocular. I wanted to see how things would play out at the high end.

The binoculars arrived well-packaged in a cardboard box. Included was the binoculars themselves, lens covers for the objective and ocular, a shoulder carrying strap, and microfiber carrying bag for transport. Maven produces these in two color schemes. My demo unit is grey with silver and orange accents, Maven’s brand colors. Alternatively, they are available in a black color with grey accents for a more subdued appearance. This later one would be my personal preference.

Maven has their branding liberally sprinkled around the optic. It’s on the back of the focus knob, the tripod mount cover, along the sides, and on the reticle adjustment ring. They apparently want you and everyone else to know that you’re using Maven optics. I could do with a little more subtlety, but it’s not offensive.

The Specs

Yes, I know you can read a spec sheet as well as I can. But just to highlight a few things that matter to me.

What I’m Comparing it To

My main point of comparison is going to be side by side against my Trijicon 8×42 HD binoculars. The Trijicons are long since discontinued, but retailed for $800 and were [probably] a white-labeled iteration of the Meopta Meopro HD 8×42 model. These are great binos and I’ve had no complaints about them whatsoever in six years. Well…until spending time with the Mavens.

In the Hand

In the hand, the Mavens feel very solid. There’s a healthy amount of mass to them. The exterior is a rubber texture with a slight amount of give to it. The eye cups twist-out and have three detents along the way for setting different amounts of stand off, depending on your eyewear situation. I found this function to be a little too quick to activate, and would prefer just a bit more resistance to the motion.

The focus wheel is knurled aluminum rather than rubber, adding to the premium feel. The same knurled aluminum appears on the eye pieces as well. The focus ring and adjustments on my Trijicon feel like toys in comparison. The Trijicon focus is a rubber knob that offers some resistance, enough that I never had an issue, but the Maven B.5 feels amazing.

Eyepiece Focus

Whereas most binoculars have a single adjustable eyepiece, the Maven B.5 18×56 Mil has three adjustments. This has to do with the reticle, which is only in the left side.

The right ocular has the traditional eyepiece focus. This allows you to focus the main binoculars on an an object with your left eye, and then fine tune the image for your right eye to match (most people don’t have identical eyesight in both eyes).

Then, on the left side you have two more adjustments. The larger orange one is for leveling the reticle inside the eyepiece. The slimmer silver one adjusts the reticle focus.

The Mil Reticle

The “killer feature” of this particular pair of binoculars is that they include a reticle for assisting with spotting and shot correction. Maven B.5 offers both a Mil reticle and MOA to suit your preference. I opted for the milliradian version.

The reticle itself is simple. Not unlike a rifle reticle, it has a floating center aiming point flanked with 20 mils of hash marks on the left, right, and vertical axes below. Most of the reticle has .5 mil has marks, but they get more frequent as you get closer to the middle, going up to .2 mil markings from the 4 mil point and in. Between 4 and 5 mils is a fine detail section with .1 hash marks.

The reticle is…fine. It does what it’s supposed to do. I think that there could have been better thought put into how people use observation optics reticles. A center aiming point with flanked hash marks makes sense for a rifle when you’re primarily using it to aim at something. In an observation tool, you are invariably using the reticle to measure something, be it the dimensions of a target or measure the degree of correction needed for a follow-up shot.

To that end, a design with more of a grid to cover a wider area would be more useful, and have it appear in the lower third of the field of view so that it doesn’t obstruct the thing you’re trying to observe if you’re not using the reticle.

There are plenty of other examples on the market of observation optics with good reticles that Maven could have drawn from. It’s not bad, but it could have been executed better.

Maven B.5 Optic Performance

This is where the rubber meets the road of an observation optic. If the tool doesn’t do well at it’s primary task, then what use is the tool?

To that, I have to say that the Maven B.5 18×56 delivers beautifully. The image is clear from edge to edge, and I’ve been unable to detect any fringing or chromatic aberration whatsoever. Maven would attribute this to the unique flourite objective lenses. Flourite crystal is a relatively rare mineral that’s had use in high magnification situations and small lenses like microscopes. More recently, lab-grown flourite enabled manufacturers to include it in much larger objectives like those found in the B.5 binoculars and S.1 spotting scope as well as high end camera lenses. Flourite is expensive, and relatively fragile compared to glass, which is why you don’t see it in more affordable optics.

As far as resolution goes, the B.5 is also beautiful. While I don’t have the Air Force resolution charts that the optics nerds use to compare one optic to another, I can talk about my practical experience.

Watching the World

I set up the binoculars in a variety of conditions to see how they did. From watching birds around a pond near my office to observing the comings and goings of people at all times of day. I was able to read the license plates of cars parked 200 meters away while holding the binoculars free hand and watching from the 9th floor of an office building. I could read the fine print of a Wilson volleyball left on a playground from 150 meters.

A heron that’s taken up residence at a nearby pond provided to be beautiful to watch. The intricate details of its feathers clearly visible were through the optic, far more detail than I got out of the Trijicons.

I was able to watch workers climbing up and down a radio tower one mile away this way, and the only distortion was from the heat mirage. In low light, I had no issue watching and making out details of people coming and going from my neighborhood out to 400 meters (the limit of line of sight).

Of course, they’re great for watching the stars as well.

I didn’t use them in a competitive setting for shooting, but given their performance on everything else I did, then I bet there would be absolutely zero issue in using them to spot impacts on steel out to 1000 yards and beyond.

In short, these binoculars are optically fantastic. If you wanted, Maven sells an optical doubler that you can attach to the eye cup and then double the magnification up to 36x, and their clear enough at the baseline that this would be perfectly usable as a small spotting scope.

Comparing the B.5 to my Trijicons

Comparing the B.5 18×56 to my Trijicon 8×42 is not actually that fair. The Trijicon HDs also have a fantastic image, and I’ve been thoroughly pleased with them for years. However, keeping that level of image quality is much easier at 8x than it is at 18x. The higher up in magnification you go, the harder it is to get everything right.

That said, I can feel the difference in build quality, function, and general usability with everything favoring the Mavens. I would actually love to do a more direct comparison of my Trijicons to something more directly related like the Maven B1.2 8×42.

Would I Recommend Them?

So here’s the question: at a retail price of $1700, do I think the Maven B.5 18×56 Mil is worth it?

Honestly, probably not.

Let me caveat that, though. The main reason I say that is that I think the reticle functionality isn’t worth the extra expense. The standard Maven B.5 binoculars are available in 10×56, 12×56, and 15×56 models. The price on those range from $1450 for the 10x to $1600 for the 18x. These lower magnification levels provide you with an even more expansive field of view. Except for the 18x, which is identical to my review piece. The actual magnification level you want depends a lot on how you plan to use them. Given that all of the B.5 models are the same size and weight, that’s not a consideration.

Personally, I think I would rather take the 12×56 or 15×56 model for slightly more field of view and a bit more cost savings. Also, the slightly lower magnification would better support free-handing the optic rather than feeling like I always have to mount it to a tripod.

If you don’t need the brightness in low light and resolution that a 56mm objective brings, then the B.5 impressed me enough that I would also take a look at the B.6 12×50 model. That particular one seems like it would make a great do-all pair of binos for range and field use.

Wrapping Up on the Maven B.5

As is typical for me, this review ran bit long. For things that cost this much, I always figure it’s better to err on the side of giving too much information rather than not enough.

This was my first long-term exposure to observation optics in this price bracket for any extended length of time. Compared to everything else I own, the Mavens are fantastic. I keep hearing how incredible “Alpha” glass is, but I would honestly have a hard time justifying going up to the $2K+ price point when these binoculars are already so good.

In the grand scheme of things, you’re probably far more likely to use a good pair of binoculars than you are a high end rifle scope. A rifle scope has one purpose- to mount to a rifle and aim at targets. A good observation optic helps you spot those targets, watch sporting events, stargaze, and is generally more useful for watching the world.

If you aren’t quite ready for that kind of price commitment, and I know many people won’t be, then I would still keep Maven optics in mind. They have a good reputation amongst optics enthusiasts, even at their lower price points and non-Japanese optics. Given my experience with these and their responsiveness to email, they might just be a sorely underrated company.