Magnifiers on spectacles

Bloody hell for that price you could get a guide dog and a white stick..........

John s.

"Much more expensive"? Crikey! Always wanted a pair of those, but..!

I have a single clip-on lens, cost £3.99 at Harrogate iirc, and works well enough for me. YMMV.

-- Peter F

Have a look at the Daylight Company magnifiers which are clip ons that flip up, supplied with a choice of lenses. And a hell of a lot cheaper!

John H

advice or

Hi Newshound or is that Mr. Newshound, anyway to answer your question, they are bloody marvelous and if I could afford some I would buy some, but I can't so I wont. I tried them at a woodworking show, on a chap from Devons stand, a couple of years ago and was greatly impressed, the depth of view and brightness was far in excess of what I expected. The price though was a major turn off, the cheap alternative is MUCH more cost effective, but if you won the pools last week, spoil yourself and you can buy me some for giving you the advice. Ned Ludd

Ouch! That's about 250 Canadian dollars!!!

Steve R.

I suppose if you are doing close up work for an extensive period, something like this is worth it, but I found a wee while ago that all I had to do was to put one pair of glasses on top of another. I just buy 'readers' from Costco and have accumulated different strengths - if I put a pair of 3's over 2's I can work at 8" quite happily. And it doesn't cost me any more than the =A310 for 3 pairs from Costco.

Rob

Not those specific ones but similar. I found with most spectacles they were too heavy especially when you were looking down and were constantly slipping forward.

A better and cheaper solution is to go to

in your normal prescription but add 3 diopters. You then have a set of prescription magnifying glasses.

I have often done the same. On the (fortunately rare) occasions when sore eyes make me remove my contact lenses and wear specs for distance viewing, a pair of reading glasses over the top makes a quite serviceable bifocal set-up. Cheap as chips, also has the advantage you can vary the strength of the reading glasses to suit needs, as Rob suggests.

David

=A3150? Cheap! I almost ordered those (I've been looking for a set of dental loupes cheaper than Heines for ages - GF is a hygienist), but with a working distance of only 13" these aren't really suitable for dental use. Short focal distances encourage backache.

are always worth a look too.

Overall, the visor sort (single lens element, a few inches from your eyes) are about the best compromise. You'll usually have a wider view angle and far less off-axis distortion.

Their Zeiss ones for =A360 quid are really nice (jewellery making)

Personally I'd rather get a good illuminated magnifier, and a small add-on workbench that's high above my normal workbench.

The drawback is that you have to get your face much nearer the work to get it in focus than you would with the "binocular" style clip-on magnifiers (which are in effect compact binoculars that allow you to focus close).

Regards, Tony

Try searching for "surgical telescopes"; the prices are "nasty".

BugBear

So is the price of a nose job after you get too close to the workpiece ;-)

Regards, Tony

I found a similar solution was to heavy for my glasses. The solution I've found is a "head loupe" (google) that will take paired lenses of 3 magnifications, giving a good 3-D view. I can use them with my reading glasses on underneath and so look down below their lenses to read the instructions :-)

It's hard reading something a character at a time...

Peter, why go to a USA store that doesn't publish its trading address? There are equivalent places over here, e.g.

that manufacture and deliver in the UK.

I still prefer my head loupe solution.

Good link, thanks. I thought there must be more suppliers out there

are always worth a look too.

Another good link, thanks. Now I have too much choice! I do have a couple of the "Peer" visors, but sometimes I am looking into big gearboxes in situ, so the surgeon's "telescope" types with their larger working distance come into their own. Apart from looking cool when I'm trying to justify our consultancy rates. Changing the subject slightly, I just bought a USB microscope from this guy

and it really isn't bad for £40. Easier to cart this plus a small laptop around plant than a binocular microscope plus lights plus camera!

I have some of those, they work well even on my varifocals. I tend to use a big table mounted magnifier with a circular lamp around it more though.

Thanks, that's a very interesting device. Even though I don't have a use for one, I can definitely feel the pull!

But perhaps we pay too much attention to the specifications of the optics and not enough to practical convenience. Although my electronics workbench has a stereo zoom microscope on a swinging arm, for most close-up work still I find myself using a cheap pair of +4 reading glasses in front of the bottom (magnifying) part of my varifocals - simply because they are so convenient.

They don't block my view of the work, they let me move my head around to change viewpoints, and instantly let me re-focus onto the wider world - and all of that is completely hands-free. Only the Zeiss magnifiers that Andy mentioned share all those advantages, but the non-prescription reading glasses are far cheaper of course. Rimless letterbox shaped lenses are in fashion at the moment, so now is a good time to buy - or at the very least, to try them in the drugstore.

Another option for a true head-up display might be an old video camera mounted above the bench. Some of the bigger, older ones have excellent zoom lenses. In a quick trial, ours gave a very good magnified view of a PC board from about a metre distance - it was wonderful to have a completely open work area above the board and need no special glasses at all. However, a true HUD would need a dedicated flat-screen monitor on the wall, right in front of where I sit to solder, and I don't do enough SMD work to justify that expense... or not yet.

BTW, along with the need for magnification is the need for a good work light. This 3W white LED from IKEA is excellent:

The icy blue-white light would be awful for reading, but gives superb definition for close-up work. The LED housing is very compact and doesn't get in the way - it can be clipped onto an over-bench shelf or even onto the arm of the microscope, and then is easily positioned with the swan neck. Highly recommended.

Looks useful. What kind of working distance does it have?

Regards, Tony