On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:38:59 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
T i m wrote:
Anyroad up, that got me thinking about getting one of those round
fluorescent magnifying lamp things and my first few Google hits
suggested they were ~ 100 quid!

Maplins have one at £29 odd and I wondered if anyone here had one (if
so what are they like please) or could offer an alternative from a
regular (Nt London) store etc?

I've got an RS one and find it pretty useless. For a start, the light
isn't bright enough. And the glass is invariably dirty when you need it.

Hmm, ok .. ;-(

I have a pair of powerful 'ready read' glasses for such things and use my
100 watt QH anglepoise as the light source.

Bright! I hope you don't work on an SM gear as it might de-solder
them! ;-)

Of course if you're already
long sighted you may not be able to buy ready made glasses powerful
enough.

If you mean my arms are too short to read things properly .. then you
are right! ;-)

But +5 works pretty well for those with near normal sight.

When I first started using 1.5's for semi regular reading etc the
3.25's made me giddy and dis-orientated. I can now deal with them
much easier but anything more than .5m away is blurred. Not tried any
5's yet .. might pop in and see if they have any tomorrow. ;-)

All the best ...

T i m