My eyes aren’t what they used to be. Well, to be honest, my eyes were never that good, but I managed. Now I’m finding doing tasks that involve small things to be a bit problematic, it was time to do something about it.
Enter the $10 magnifier, complete with LED lights.
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I’ve used head-mounted magnifiers before — such as the Optivisor — but once you add the loupe and the light, the package is over $100. I have one, but I find the light bulky, and it doesn’t even use LEDs, but instead xenon bulbs.
I’ve seen a number of cheaper alternatives, but tended to shy away. “Buy cheap, buy twice,” and all that. Then I noticed that my UK electronic supplier — RS Components — had a cheap magnifier that came with the loupe and a handy LED light, for about $10.
This supplier doesn’t, as a rule, sell rubbish because people would send things back, so I paid my money and took a chance.
And I was blown away by how good it was.
- The headband is comfortable, and fits my huge head
- The twin-LED lights powered by two AAA batteries is bright, and I can pan it left and right, and angle it downwards, depending on what I’m doing
- It’s got three lenses (a fixed 1.9x stereo lens, a drop-down 1.9x stereo lens, and a 4.5x loupe) allowing for four magnifications up to 8.3x
- The lenses are high quality and distortion-free
- It’s lightweight (which initially makes it feel cheap), but durable
- And it’s available on Amazon for $10!
I’ve used mine now for a couple of months and I have no complaints. I really love the pan and tilt LEDs, that allows me to get the light exactly on what I’m doing.
Highly recommended!
