Recommendations for magnifying lenses for fine work

Square Peg · 2008-12-08T07:37:37+00:00

Any recommendations for magnifying lenses for very fine work?I've used those lighted magnifying desk lamps with some success, butthey are only good for desk work. I am wondering if some sort of loupelike jewelers or dentists use might be worth buying.My dentist told me that dental loupes cost $1,000 or more. That's abit more than I was planning on spending. How much magnification is needed or useful? According to Wikipedia, jewelers use 10X magnification toinspect diamonds for blemishes, but dentists only use 2X-5X, sosomething in that range ought to be good enough for removing sliversand soldering. ;-)This article says that good jeweler's loupes are triplets -- threelenses combined so as to correct (or minimize) distortion. I amguessing that this is not important for general use. article has a lot of detailed information about opticalmagnifiers in general. are some products I found online. Any recommendations orsuggestions?This company offers mini-loupes in 4X, 6X, and 8X powers for just$3.50 each and a headband to hold them for just $5:I couldn't find the 4X loupe. This $40 headband magnifier had 4 lenses (1.2X, 1.8X, 2.5X, and 3.5Xand a small headlight. I can't tell if the lenses flip up.Is 3.5X enough magnification?The same company offers this headband magnifier for $60. These lenses(2X, 2.5X, 3X) do flip up, but it is not lighted.Amazon is selling this set of 5 watchmaker's loupes for $13. Based onthe reviews, it's not clear if these are 2X, 3X, 5X, 7X and 10X or 1X,2X, 3X, 4X, and 5X.These are loose loupes (no headband), which I presume you wedge intoyour eye. I've seen jewelers use them that way, so it must work, butI'm thinking some sort of headband like the first entry would beeasier to use, especially for work taking more than a few minutes.This $45 product from Bausch & Lomb claims to have top quality optics.

Dec 08, 2008 21 Replies

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Square Peg 17 years ago

Ha-ha. I've been on reading glasses for 20 years.

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Square Peg 17 years ago

I stopped into a local optical shop that was listed on the Optivisor websight. They had one unit in stock and 2 extra lenses (3X, 5X, &

7X). I don't have a major project right now, but it seems to work pretty darn well.

Thanks

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Recommendations for magnifying lenses for fine work

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