Surgical / dental loupes

Chestcutter said:
The Carl Zeiss loupes are used by dentists and other medical professionals. My field of view is about 40mm. There are some brands that have special wide FOV.

Designs for visions have an extensive range.

https://www.designsforvision.com/SurgHtml/S-Panoramic.htm

I personally don’t like the glasses mounted loupes, as they are heavy on the nose and ears. Head mounted are much better.
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So, I also have surgical loupes I use occasionally and here are my experiences:

I prefer the ones that mount on glasses because then I can have corrected vision (reading glasses) for seeing in a full range of view, and then I can look down and through the loupes for magnification. If you put a tool down and want to find it to pick it up again you will quickly learn how helpful this is...

I use 2.5x and 3x magnification and that gives me about 45-50 mm field of view at about 15-18 inches. This is rather small, but I only wear them for super-high-precision work. My regular reading glasses and good lighting works for normal model work.

I don't care for illumination ON the glasses - just too many things going on for me. Of note: adding the light doesn't add much weight because the battery pack is separate. It does add cost.

Speaking of which - these things are rather expensive so I don't think I would have them if there wasn't a cross-use for me professionally. Their use is rather limited in my experience, and they take some getting used to (they will make you seasick until you get accustomed to using something like this).

An entry-level brand that is quite popular for its reasonable price is Lumadent:

Dental Loupes, Hygienist Glasses & Surgical Headlight - Lumadent

Try our award-winning ErgoPrism Loupes & Headlight Packages for Dentists, Surgeons, Hygienists, and Students. Get dental loupes with a 45-day risk-free trial.
www.lumadent.com www.lumadent.com

You can customize for vision correction (of the host glasses), magnification, lighting, working length (hold something you are working on and measure how far that is from your eyes). Lots of nice features.

I hope this helps...
 
dockattner said:
So, I also have surgical loupes I use occasionally and here are my experiences:

I prefer the ones that mount on glasses because then I can have corrected vision (reading glasses) for seeing in a full range of view, and then I can look down and through the loupes for magnification. If you put a tool down and want to find it to pick it up again you will quickly learn how helpful this is...

I use 2.5x and 3x magnification and that gives me about 45-50 mm field of view at about 15-18 inches. This is rather small, but I only wear them for super-high-precision work. My regular reading glasses and good lighting works for normal model work.

I don't care for illumination ON the glasses - just too many things going on for me. Of note: adding the light doesn't add much weight because the battery pack is separate. It does add cost.

Speaking of which - these things are rather expensive so I don't think I would have them if there wasn't a cross-use for me professionally. Their use is rather limited in my experience, and they take some getting used to (they will make you seasick until you get accustomed to using something like this).

An entry-level brand that is quite popular for its reasonable price is Lumadent:

Dental Loupes, Hygienist Glasses & Surgical Headlight - Lumadent

Try our award-winning ErgoPrism Loupes & Headlight Packages for Dentists, Surgeons, Hygienists, and Students. Get dental loupes with a 45-day risk-free trial.
www.lumadent.com www.lumadent.com

You can customize for vision correction (of the host glasses), magnification, lighting, working length (hold something you are working on and measure how far that is from your eyes). Lots of nice features.

I hope this helps...
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Thanks for your insight, Doc. I think, for now, I’ll stick to what I have as the dental/surgical loupes are just too expensive and seem to really have a limited field of view. As you said they’re great for very detailed work but cost to benefit ratio just isn’t there.
 
Hey, guys. I went to our dollar store and bough +2.0 reading glasses for $1 and 25c. I tell you I cannot use these reading glasses in place of my old magnifiers I pictured in my post above. Reading glasses have very broad scope of vision and I feel sea sick when I switch my glance away from object I work on to the surrounding area. I will stick to my old magnifiers.
 
dockattner said:
An entry-level brand that is quite popular for its reasonable price is Lumadent:
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I do not envy dentists and doctors. Manufacturers of equipment for them are ripping them off. I wish I entered the medical supply manufacturing business at the career start. Well, the elevator business I am still in was also a not bad start.
 
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dnalley said:
Yes, this is a joke. I laugh at all of us old guys with eye problems.
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If you want to do modelling you will require set of magnifiers regardless of your age or condition of the eyesight. It is like you cannot do watchmaking, dentistry and some surgical work without use of magnifying lenses.
 
I have used optivisors for many years. They are comfortable and sometimes I forget I am wearing them. They easily swivel up out of the way. They have a limited depth of view (I would think all of them would due to the optics) You can use them with or without your glasses. I find them indispensable. There are many knock off brands available. I can not speak for their comfort.
Rob

 
I got this one.

In China half the price. It's perfect for very small work. But heavy and big on your head.

This one I got for most of the time
Just perfect, works like a second glass. What I also use for quick work. Mine was out China and just 2 euro

And in this moment I use the big one with light. Something like this one

But mine got a real glass optic, expensive, so look for secondhand. I changed the round TL with a led. The glas makes it very clear to work with. I guess it magnify 10 times.

Yes we all need these things when you work on small parts.
 
Steve Fletcher.. a real skilled craftsman.

I do look at these head set magnifying rigs once in awhile. You might check with jewelry makers. I've seen stuff on eBay.. . BUT what's the quality
 
Rob444 said:
I have used optivisors for many years. They are comfortable and sometimes I forget I am wearing them. They easily swivel up out of the way. They have a limited depth of view (I would think all of them would due to the optics) You can use them with or without your glasses. I find them indispensable. There are many knock off brands available. I can not speak for their comfort.
Rob

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These are the ones I use. I've been using them for over 5 years working with miniatures and I couldn't do w/o them. I wear my reading glasses for "in general" work and then flip the magnifier shield down in front of my glasses (so I have my reading glasses on and magnifiers in front) for the really detailed stuff.

The only thing I don't like is that I have to get really close to the object (depth of view, like you said) to achieve clear focus. It's tough on my neck.
 
I've had cataract surgery, so eyes are okay for distance, but I have a problem up close. I got 3 pair of glasses from eBay, in 3.0, 4.5 and 6 diopter and find they work quite well for me. Plus I often leave them on, lowered over my nose, to walk around, watch TV or whatever.
 
I’ve had the same problem. The depth of field isn’t great and they are just uncomfortable with or without my glasses. What works best for me is my round fluorescent light with a magnifying lens in the center.
 
Chestcutter said:
I wear my old retired surgical loupes. They are Carl Zeiss and head mounted. No light but one can be attached.

I use x4 magnification, but you can get them in lower magnification and different focal lengths too.

I do all my modeling with them on, you can wear glasses or not, and also I wear a respirator mask when using CA glue, sanding or painting with solvents or enamels.

They are not cheap but this pair, which I used at work previously is over 30 years old. The newer versions are a bit more space age looking.


View attachment 428626
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Spooky! :eek:
 
Rob444 said:
I have used optivisors for many years. They are comfortable and sometimes I forget I am wearing them. They easily swivel up out of the way. They have a limited depth of view (I would think all of them would due to the optics) You can use them with or without your glasses. I find them indispensable. There are many knock off brands available. I can not speak for their comfort.
Rob

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I have also been using these for several years. They work well, have good optical quality, and are reasonably comfortable. Mine have built-in LEDs around the lenses to light up the work piece. I wholeheartedly recommend them.
 
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