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Jon Elson[_3_]

wrote:

I have a pair of magnifiers that I use in the shop for working on small
stuff.
I don't know if this will be any help. I have several of those
visor things, but almost never use them. I'm nearsighted anyway,
so for a quick look I just look under my glasses and can see quite
a lot. For REAL close-up examination or anything that will take
some time, I have an Olympus stereo-zoom microscope I got by contacting
an eBay seller. (I didn't buy what he had on eBay, but some other gear
he had.)

There are lots of these stereo-zoom microscopes. The trick for electronics
work is to get one with a long "working distance". We have 2 other units at
work, too. All of them have at least 4-5" of working distance, which is
enough to do micro-soldering on ICs and other tricky stuff, with hands and
tools under the scope. I do chips down to 0.4mm lead pitch.

Note that there are binocular microscopes that are NOT stereo, they only
have one objective lens, and beam splitters to feed both eyes. You really
WANT true stereo.

Maybe more hardware than some people want or need, but doing the level of
stuff I do, I really love the microscopes.

Jon