Dealing with batteries the other day—and battery packaging—I came up again against an age-related annoyance—it's getting harder and harder for me to read small print.
So I looked into getting a magnifier.
Turns out it's one of those things where there's just too much choice. A plethora of different types and hundreds of different options. The many different powers of magnification, simple lenses, doublets and triplets. Coatings usually aren't mentioned. And there's such an avalanche of really cheap, mass-produced options that it can be hard to find anything else because it all gets lost in that vast seething stew of cheap stuff.
And as you might expect, unlike most casual consumers in this category, I'm not that interested in cheap. I'm more interested in good.
Here are a few common magnifier types:
Your basic classic magnifying glass. Used for reading and to kill ants.
Magnifying glass. The "iconic" (sorry, but think Sherlock Holmes) single-element, large field simple lens on a handle, usually 2X, that police inspectors in old movies and cartoons use to signify that they're busy inspecting. In real life, however, the classic magnifying glass is mainly used for reading. And killing ants on the sidewalk, an activity that's fun exactly once if you're not older than six (or are going to grow up to be a serial killer).
The problem with magnifying glasses, these days, seems to be that there's no money in them. The lowest-common-demominator model is practical—it incorporates a light and two lenses of two different powers—but it costs basically as much as two cups of coffee, so how good could it be? My guess is, just short of almost adequate, like most such barely-good-enough but super-cheap-so-they'll-sell types of products. Maybe I shouldn't judge.
As far as the classic types like the one pictured above, I've found that 2X isn't very useful—too close to no magnification at all. I'd consider 3X to be the baseline for a reading glass. Here's a decent one of those for $11.50.
If you live in a home, however, not a third-grade classroom, meaning you want to leave it out and you want it to look nice, try the Celestron Ambassador set pictured above. $50.
Common stand loupe
Loupe. A "loupe" can be any eyepiece magnifier, but in photography and editing the baseline is a loupe like the dreaded Kalt 8X (above), a super-cheap plastic simple lens on a clear stand that is only sharp in the middle of its field. These were all over the place back in my student/teacher days, because they're cheap as chocolates and they serve, sorta kinda, for seeing if a B&W negative is sharp or if you've got the grain focused in a B&W print. They cost $9.50 so it doesn't matter too much if one falls behind the sink or wanders off in a student's backpack. I kinda have a genial low-lying loathing for these overly-familiar cheap-crap knuckles of plastic, so I'm not going to link to it. There are already enough of them in the world. We don't want to encourage their further proliferation.
There's actually a good version, the Peak 8X stand loupe, for $49. If you want one, get that instead. I had a professor who wore one around his neck on a string.
If you want a very high-quality pocket loupe, there's a "Leica option" (I mean that like "a Rolls-Royce option," not something actually made by Leica): the lovely 7X Hastings Triplet (coated) made by Edmund Optics. Flat-field, corrected for three colors, and mm-mm good. $99. There are higher-power options available too.
Linen tester. A variation on the stand loupe is the linen tester, which I'm including here mainly because I like that name. It's a folding, open-sided stand loupe meant to inspect the thread-count of fabric. Most are of slightly lower magnification but better quality than a plastic-fantastic Kalt-type loupe. $9.
Dome magnifier
Globe (or dome) magnifier. These are intended to be placed on a flat surface to magnify whatever's underneath them. They look nice—like glass paperweights—but it's hard to get the light just right and I don't think they work very well. A good way to put it is that they're 50% useful and 50% annoying. I'll link to it because I used the image and fair's fair, but I can't quite imagine someone buying one and then being happy with me for getting them into it. As an alternative action plan, try this: first, put off buying it till tomorrow, and after that, forget about it altogether. :-)
The Donegan OptiVisor, a widely used headband magnifier
Headband magnifier. Used by jewelers and modelers—these are what we used most in the modeling room at Model Railroader magazine. Obviously, the main draw is that they're hands-free, comfortable (the lenses flip up to get them out of the way when you don't need them), and nice for their intended purpose. They'll take up a fair amount of room in a kitchen odds 'n' ends drawer, though, and, for general here-and-there use like reading the small print on medicine bottles, they might be overkill. Here's another good one.
A desktop magnifying lamp
Desktop magnifying lamp. There are about a zillion variations on this theme—remembering what I said above about high quality, this Brightech model is one of the very best and, at $70, much more expensive than even good-quality garden-variety options. Desktop magnifying lamps are widely useful for many things, especially because they are lighted so well. Most can double as plain old clamp-lamps as well, quite aside from the magnifying function—this one even features a little cover for the lens to help make it look like a normal lamp. [UPDATE: Michael Matthews points out that this is also a safety feature. Just as a magnifying glass can be used by small kinds to fry ants, it's also at least possible for it to catch stray sunlight and wreak mischief unintentionally. Unlikely that everything would align properly at random, but when the downside is your house burning down, it's worth thinking about. —Ed.]
Only possible problem? Appearance. This would look fine in a utility room, on a garage or basement workbench, in a student dorm or study room, or any kind of workroom (or room at work); it's just that it might not be perfectly at home in the perfect home. You might not like this at the other end of the table from your reproduction Louis Tiffany, or clamped to the edge of your beautiful solid walnut leather-top desk.
The Brightech LightView pictured has an unusually high rating on Amazon, with 609 five-star and another 39 four star reviews out of 670 total. It has a 2.25X magnifier that's five inches in diameter, and the light is dimmable and features adjustable color temperature. The light is LED, not fluorescent, and is claimed to last for 20 years. The lamp also comes in white. Brightech is a U.S.-based, family-owned business, if that matters to you.
What Mike bought: Since I just need a decent-quality general-purpose magnifier to help me with the fine print on small objects, I thought I'd try this Levenhuk Zeno 500 from B&H Photo.
Why? Well, it seems well made, it has eight LEDs in a ring around the lower side so it should be able to throw some light on the subject, and the 3.5X magnification is probably enough for most tasks while not having too narrow a field. And it takes the selfsame rechargeable AAs that started all this.
Judging by the case, it's probably made in the same Pacific-rim factory where all the other magnifiers are made. Not that that's a bad thing.
Is it good? Don't know. But I'll revisit it after I've had a chance to try it.
Have a nice weekend!
Mike
Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
robert e: "May I point out that your iPhone is a handy magnifier as well? Just call up the camera. Even my ancient 5c is around 2X at a couple of inches, I'd say, and of course you can snap a photo and zoom in and scroll around at your leisure. It also has a big advantage over old fashioned optics-only magnifiers in that, thanks to its picture-taking ability, it can see around corners, in crevices, and even behind things. And of course you can save the image for future reference. Other tricks: you can enhance the image for easier reading, do OCR, and translate text. I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking of. Of course, it's just plain fun to hold up a magnifying glass, and they do go better with pipes (the smoking kind)."
Mike replies: Thanks for the reminder. To enable the magnifier app on the iPhone, go to Settings > General > Accessibility, then toggle "Magnifier" to "On." to access it, triple-click the home button.
I should have remembered that! (Also, I added "Optical" to the post title.)
Allan Ostling: "The Hastings 7X Triplet looks like a fine product. Most magnifiers in that range are two-element lenses, which provide a good view with little fall-off of sharpness at the edges. The Hastings, with three elements, should be even better. The focal length of the Hastings is 40mm, and the objective diameter is listed as 0.875", or 22mm—it is therefore a 40mm ƒ/1.8 lens. You probably don't have one of these in your collection of unused lenses. But if you have a 50mm ƒ/1.4 laying around somewhere, you can use this as a 6X loupe, of very high quality. It would not be as convenient (or as powerful) as the Hastings, but for some, it will suffice."
Tim Bradshaw: "I have the Peak 8x loupe which I can vouch for. I got it specifically for looking at 35mm negs and contact sheets, and it is ideal for both. I also have a linen tester, which I use to focus a large format camera: it's not better than the Peak loupe, except that it folds flat, which is quite nice."
Larry Gebhardt: "My favorite loupe is the Mamiya 3X for 6x7. Seems it's now out of production. I bought it for darkroom work, but find I use it for a lot around the house. I like the OptiVisor if I need to manipulate a small object. Finally, a regular pair reading glasses is my most used magnifying solution."
Mike replies: Was the Mamiya originally made by a company called "Cabin"? That's how the boxes were marked anyway, once upon a time. The earlier version was 3X and the later, 3.5X. Like the Pentax 5.5X, you can still find these on eBay.
Adam Richardson: "I have a Mamiya 3.5X loupe that I originally got for looking at 645 transparencies. It's absolutely gorgeous—visually, optically, haptically. But a bit large and cumbersome for your average grab-and-read need. It's a shame I don't shoot transparency film any more as I rarely have a need to use such a wonderful object."
William Schneider: "I have many of the magnifiers that you mentioned, but my favorite one dates back to my darkroom days. I continue to use it now for things requiring a bit more magnification than most magnifiers. It is an Edmund Deluxe 6X Wide Field Magnifier with two achromatic groups, and AR coated. It has a wide field of view and decent eye relief. I just looked on the Edmund Optics website and it is still available. It's hands-down my favorite, and I often wondered why I didn't see more of them around."
Mike replies: That one's another classic, but expensive enough that it was predominantly used when somebody else was paying for it, e.g. in graphic arts departments.
Tom Hassler: "This post made me grin. In 25+ years of large-format studio photography, we used magnifiers of all types for everything from close inspection of chromes and negs to verifying focus on 8x10 ground glasses. I still have a drawer full of them. The expensive ones were not always the best either. In the end my personal favorite was a small magnifying glass which (wait for it...) I wore on a string around my neck!
"Here's a little trick to make the 'plastic knuckle' loupe more usable: flip it around and put the 'wrong' end up to your eye. Move your subject closer or farther away until it appears sharp. Now, by moving around your head and/or the object being viewed, you can get sharp focus almost anywhere."
Bahi (partial comment): "I have a (cheaper, fluorescent) version of the desktop light and it has been phenomenally useful for fixing stuff. Back when I used a DSLR, it needed occasional focus adjustment and without this lamp, I'm not sure I'd have managed it."
MikeR: "What about just plain readers? Over-the-counter reading glasses from your local drugstore."
Herman: "If you wear glasses, the clip-on flip-up magnifying glasses work well. They generally come in strengths of 1.5 to 3 diopters."
Tom: "Deserving of an honourable mention is the Nikon magnifier, the staple of picture editors until the arrival of digital. It came complete with lanyard and the wise wore it around their neck to stop it walking. Mine also had my name painted on it in a belt and braces measure. It was properly 35mm shaped, unlike the linen tester. My personal watershed came when I found myself on the telephone to Apple support pointing out to the help that the engraved serial number on the back of my iPod, without which he would not help me, was too small to be visible to my then 40 year old eyes. Tail between my legs, I used a magnifying glass to read it over."
Mike replies: I do vaguely remember that Nikon magnifier, but I can't find a picture of it online. Was it just like a linen tester, but with a 24x36mm opening?
hugh crawford (partial comment): "If you want the finest possible loupe, and happen to have an old 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens sitting around, and boy do I ever, congratulations, you already own it."
Mike replies: I used to keep a 50mm ƒ/1.4 Pentax Super-Multi-Coated Takumar (screwmount) around for that purpose. Wonder where that went? Pretty narrow field, though.
Bill Tyler: "Did you happen to notice that the name on your magnifier, 'Levenhuk,' echoes 'Leeuwenhoek,' the early Dutch microscopist?"
Mike replies: Good call. Does make you wonder.
Eolake: "Yes! Thanks for this, for years ago I tried to find a really good magnifier, and I was never satisfied with any of those I did find, not really. Usually I manage to sniff out the quality stuff, but not that time."
Mike replies: Yeah, this category is tough. And complicated by the fact that most magnifiers are tailored to various different purposes and uses. One that's perfect for one task might be fairly useless for another.
Michael Matthews: "Another purpose for the lens cover on that desktop magnifying lamp is to block sunlight. If you leave one uncovered in the path of direct sunlight and it happens to be in just the right spot you may be frying more than ants. I found that an old, circular Tupperware container top serves admirably for the magnifying lamp on my wife’s drafting table."
Mike replies: Good point. I should add that to the text of the post.
Imre Karafiath: "Did you look in your camera bag? Nikon and Canon offer two-element close up lenses. My Nikon 6T is a better magnifier than any other that I have tried."
Mike replies: These two-element close-up "filters" (as you say, they're really lenses) are also discontinued, but still find-able. I always thought they were admirably useful for people who understood what they were good for and how to use them (and had only a small penalty in the camera bag), but long experience as a teacher and writer taught me that most people would just decline to buy one. You're right about them though.
GKFroehlich: "Very useful post, Mike, thanks! Of course, this one’s likely to cost me! If you find yourself needing higher magnification, you might consider this BelOMO 10x triplet. I’ve had mine for several years now, and have yet to see its equal. The field of view is pretty wide considering the magnification, there’s no perceptible distortion, and the image is sharp from edge to edge. In fact, I keep one in my car, one at my desk, and I carry one in the field."
Mike replies: That's very much like the Edmund Optic version but for a fraction of the price. Thanks.
