Magnifying glasses to help with fine details

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the long delay but it was impossible to connect to my account.

So for the lenses, I really enjoy them. I have been using them regularly for more than a month and they are very useful.

I bought the same exact set a couple of years ago to work on card models but now I use it for all kinds of small parts, and even soldering repairs on surface mount boards.  I like them and they work just fine for me.  A good investment if you work with really small fiddly items.  

DarkWoods

...About a week ago, I received a pair of magnifying glass from Fancii to help me when I have to deal with fine parts. There is also a light included (by using 3 AAA batteries). I decided to use the headband but you can decide to use it as a pair of normal glasses.

This product comes with a box including five magnifying lenses of different force (1X, 1.5X, 2X, 2.5X and 3.5X).

I bought that, too, a couple of years ago. I like the idea of having focused light aimed at the piece of work (yes, even on a well-lit bench).  I use it with the arms, not the headband.

But I don't like it.  I have tried, but I cannot get used to it.  I find the weight of the batteries too heavy on the bridge of my nose.  And the highest magnification in that set is still not as high as the magnification the loupe on my Optivisor provides.

I may just get a new Optivisor with built-in lighting, or an add-on light set to attach to the one I already have.

I also use a pair of drugstore reading glasses, for intermediate magnification.

I use the Carson visor.  It has the same magnification lenses as the ones you noted.  It's really comfortable and along with my airbrush it's probably the biggest game changer on my bench.  

Don, now that you mention convergence, I do seem to be having more problems in the last couple of years with seeing things up-close without readers.  It does seem to be that my eyes are wanting to converge at a longer distance.  I'm going to have to try the Optivisor again for a while and see if that improves.  I guess it can't be a coincidence that my vision has deteriorated so rapidly in just the last couple of years, and seeing things at a distance still isn't a problem.  Maybe the readers aren't such a great idea afterall.

Although I use dollar store readers, I do acknowledge special magnifying glasses.  Readers do not include a prism in the grind.  As a result as you increase the power, your eyes are forced to converge further. Beyond about 3X,  this causes eyestrain and headaches with long use.  Better quality magnifiers built for higher powers include this prismatic grind.  You can use them for longer times without headaches.  For me, anything beyond 2.75X merely magnifies my finger shakes, so dollar store readers are okay.

gregbale

The readers are lighter and more comfortable with a better field of view...and don' t give that 'walled off from the world' sensation the 'goggles' did.

That's exactly the first thing I noticed when I ditched my Optivisor.  A lot less stuff was accidentally getting knocked over on my bench that was outside the tunnel.  The clip-ons I added recently made them even more useful.  Now when I need more magnification, I can just flip them down instead of having to go get my higher magnification set.

Eaglecash867

I use cheap magnifying reader glasses in a variety of magnification levels, along with a nice, bright headlamp.  Recently added a few clip-on magnification boosters which also work well.

Agreed.

I used an Optivisor-type knockoff for years, and it worked great. Then, one day on a wild hair, I picked up a pair of cheap 2.5x readers at the drug store...and haven't used the Optivisor since.

The readers are lighter and more comfortable with a better field of view...and don' t give that 'walled off from the world' sensation the 'goggles' did.

I use cheap magnifying reader glasses in a variety of magnification levels, along with a nice, bright headlamp.  Recently added a few clip-on magnification boosters which also work well.

So, how do you find them? Useful?  I only have heard good things about this design (comes under many different brandings).