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If you don't have space for a microscope, you can also get yourself the long-range (~400mm) 2.5-3.5x magnifiers that you may have seen your dentist wear. They'r
by summa_tech 4mo ago
If you don't have space for a microscope, you can also get yourself the long-range (~400mm) 2.5-3.5x magnifiers that you may have seen your dentist wear. They're easily available on Amazon, not too expensive, and comfortable for hours of wearing. These are 2-element lenses that work really well.
Higher magnification variants (8x etc) are not nearly as comfy. They get quite long, heavy and expensive. I tried them and did not like them nearly as much. Also beware of short viewing distance, ultra-cheap products that are just a single lens element per eye.
- stavros 4mo agoThis is a great tip, I use a loupe and it works amazingly well. Cost maybe $10?
- jrumbut 4mo agoOh yeah, I'm sure that $300 microscope comes in handy but a cheap loupe gets you started. I've found all sorts of other uses for it too.
- tra3 4mo agoCan you share a link?
- stavros 4mo agoYep: https://a.aliexpress.com/_Eyw9z6E https://a.aliexpress.com/_Eyw9z6E
- tra3 4mo agoAppreciate that, ordered! Hopefully it'll bring my soldering to the next level. Can you recommend something for "helping hands"?
- stavros 4mo agoNo problem! The only helping hands I'd recommend are https://omnifixo.com/ https://omnifixo.com/. Pricy, but everything else I've tried has too much play and is useless to me. Omnifixo is just fantastic.
- dtgriscom 4mo agoI have a Donegan DA-5 OptiVisor Headband Magnifier. They're nice, because the lenses are prism'd so that you can focus on something close without having to go cross-eyed.