Thread: Old Age and vision

i use a loupe for some work when i want to be particularly accurate. .. it does magnify well but i need to get closer to the work to get proper focus. .. i bought it from hobby tools australia. .. it doesn't look like they have exactly the same model but this one is close.

Deluxe Head Mounted Magnifier With 2 Led Lights

mine has different magnification lenses and i can't see on this one that you can double them up which you can on mine. ... i generally use JUST the 2.5 magnification anyway (which is the smallest of the 4 magnifications of mine) so this one would do what i need. .. it fits comfortably over my prescription safety glasses



regards david

I have two headband magnifiers and one of the lenses with LED illumination on an arm. Both types have their place, but the headbands are much more versatile. I have a genuine US-made Optivisor and a Chinese knock-off. The optics on both are excellent and the knock-off came with a selection of lenses. However, no matter how much I tighten the adjusting knobs on the Chinese model, the visor keeps drooping down. It's incredibly annoying and potentially hazardous, depending on the task at hand. The Optivisor is rock solid.

I bought a s/h magnifying light off market place which I've adapted to locate to different points of my workbench

its really good for fine stuff and even things like soldering etc, but tends to get in the way if you are using large tools and/or a hammer

if anything the overhead light is a handy thing,

I also have the magnifying headset, but I think I use the mag/lamp more

jpdv

Like Jack 620, I have several of those headband magnifiers. Some have headlights and one has a jeweler's loupe too. Optivisor was the brand by which all others were judged, but they are available with several lens strengths and you have to select one which suits you and your work best. The higher the magnification, the closer you have to be to the work. 1.5X or 2.0X would be the best place to start.

I also bought one of the Chinese knock-offs. It seems almost indistinguishable from the Optivisor and had the added bonus of not only being half the price of Optivisor but also coming with four lenses (all different magnification strengths) instead of a single lens. I have not had the same trouble with securing the band as Jack so it may be luck of the draw there.

I bought them primarily for sharpening handsaws. Without them I would be unable to do that task and I use them in conjunction with my ordinary reading glasses. I have a Quasar light attachment to go with the Optivisor, but mine has a dicky connection somewhere. My wife has the same set-up but her Quasar light and Optivisor are much better.

Regards
Paul

Just watch out that many unscrupulous vendors will call their headband magnifier product "Optivisors" when they are clearly not.

One of the best things you can do to improve vision in a workshop is to improve the general and specific illumination.Most sheds I visit are woeful in that respect.
The other thing was to have my cataracts removed - everything was much clearer and brighter after that although I still wear glasses I found a decent pair of close up reading glasses work better than a cheap magnifier.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys - appreciated. And I also very much agree with Bob's last point - I'm in the process of upping the light system across the whole workshop - but am now blind enough that it'll be a 'multi-phased' approach!

One clue as to quality is the lens material. Make sure it is glass and not plastic. I think even Optivisor make a plastic version. All the headbands are of course plastic. Adequate lighting is a great help.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

One clue as to quality is the lens material. Make sure it is glass and not plastic.

Not sure I agree with this. ALL of my many pairs of reading glasses are plastic. Sunglasses too.

Originally Posted by jack620

Not sure I agree with this. ALL of my many pairs of reading glasses are plastic. Sunglasses too.

Jack

I am talking purely headband lenses and specifically Optivisor and their lookalikes.

Regards
Paul

My degrading eyesight regime:

In pic I always use these glasses, they're good to about a metre. They're the cheapest I could buy so for the most part, deposable. I don't invest much money it them because they don't usually last more than two years before they're not up to the task. The head lamp is good in situations where I really need concentrated light. I think it rates over 1000 lumen. The head loupe is, or was, the one Lee Valley sold and has the second magnification lens also. I think that one, which is used most often, is x7. Had it for 30 years or more.

I don't have natural light close by so I rely on these:

The overhead lamp I scrounged from a decommissioned medical facility. I put the largest ceiling LED I could in it, without needing to cut it up. Reaches out 2m so works pretty good. Would like to find a brighter light for it though.

And last but not least, under shelf lighting string. Works OK, but casts shadows so not so good when marking out and doing high detail work, and it emits the wrong colour (supposed to be "natural" light). Might yank it out and find a brighter more white light and put it on a lip that sticks out on the second shelf and see how that works.



I have a theory about eyes as they get older. Those glasses only work out to about a metre... I can get very clear vision from them but still struggle with old eyes to see small detail... I suspect the optic nerve and the cones and cylinders are just getting old and they don't transmit the signals nearly as good as when young... So intense light is important to make the object in view much more vibrant, so the eyes are receiving much more light rays. I also suspect the LEDs don't emit as good a quality of light as the old incandescent lights.

Originally Posted by jack620

Not sure I agree with this. ALL of my many pairs of reading glasses are plastic. Sunglasses too.

For the head loupe I'd say get glass if you can. Refractive quality and consistency is slightly better, but even more important, the scratch resistance is massive by comparison. I'm very religious with my glasses, and any lens for that matter, even my face shields. I've been wearing glasses since I was three and the one thing that drives me nuts is scratches. I never touch the lens unless I've at least rinsed them under running water, (better with soap, after you've washed your hands) and then only wipe dry with a 100% cotton terrycloth towel, and only very gently. A single grain of sand trapped in a thin cloth will really $%^& up your lens. And those stupid lens cloths sold with your glasses are absolute garbage. Often, in the first year of having new glasses, I don't touch them with a cloth at all. A wash with soap and water and then blow them off. The lens is highly hydrophobic and the water easily blows off.

Glass lens in a set of glasses is often impractical because of weight and because they can shatter or chip on impact, it's very hard to find them anymore.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

I also suspect the LEDs don't emit as good a quality of light as the old incandescent lights.

Incandescent lights are basically very hot bodies at 1000's of degrees so emit a broad frequency spectrum with a peak being temperature dependent, and in the infra red. This is why they get so hot and emit most of their energy as wasted heat. They look yellowish not because that is the most common frequency emitted but because that is the frequency the human eye is most sensitive to.

LEDs typically come in quite specific colours (Red, Green and Blue, RGB) and by varying the amount of each make up the other colours including white. To further soften the spectrum, white phosphor coated globes are used to absorb the RGB and re-emit the light in a broader spectrum. LEDs operate using DC so when powered by AC require AC-DC (rectification) circuitry which usually results in substantial flicker of the light output. Quality LEDs will have minimal visible flicker but even if the flicker cannot be detected by eye it can still affect users. Sometimes the flicker can be detected out of the corner of your eye which is one way to test these light sources. This flicker (including those with no visible flicker) can result in strobing effects around moving objects which can be dangerous in a workshop.

The strobing effect can be reduced and even visibly eliminated by using lighting from a number of sources. On the ceiling above my MW lathe I have 3 x 2000 lumen LED battens, while about 60cm above and just behind the lathe bed I have 2 x 800 lumen LED globes which reduces strobing below what I can usually see.

With LEDs you usually will get what you pay for. I bought a 100W LED ring light from ebay for $14 that I installed inside my 3D printer enclosure and the flicker from that light is so bad I do not want to look at that light directly as it makes me ill. OTOH I bought several (so called) 10,000 lumen panels for about $20 (also on ebay) that do not appear to flicker to the human eye but still produce a strobing effect on moving objects. Being unidirectional the light output is also quite harsh probably because it casts deep shadows, so can be straining on the eye when used for medium - long periods. I have one of these panels above my grinders in my shed which tend to only get used for short periods. I also have a similar LED panel above my electronics workbench BUT I also have an additional 11,000 lumens of lighting from 4 Philipps (ie expensive) LED globes about 1m above and focused down onto my work surface. The globes are much easier to work under and I only switch on the LED panel when I need an added lighting boost.

I have a "LED Lenser" brand headlamp that is quite a few years old now. Very good light, but the headband is now stretched and uncomfortable to wear. I recently bought a combination LED light from Temu for less than $20 and have so far found it to be quite good. It has the choice of the wide "surround" LED band which provides good even light around more than just your normal range of vision (great for under the car), or a LED "spotlight" for more direct lighting in front of you. I find myself using the "surround" LED light more than I thought I would. The "clap to turn on/off" feature comes in handy at times too, especially under the car.

For magnification - so far I get away mostly with just my reading glasses. Plus I recently purchased a couple of magnifying glass kits from CWS and turned handles for them - I keep one on my bench in the shed and the other is next to where I sit in the lounge room at night. They have come in handy occasionally for reading fine print etc.

Screenshot 2024-03-24 at 8.10.03 am.jpg

Keep 'em coming guys - some good points here - the issue around quality of LED and strobing etc was not one I had considered.

I'm also lucky, in that I'm just upgrading the ceiling fans in the house: the old ones are perfectly usable, and have double light sockets under each one - I'm going to include them in the overall light/comfort mix above/behind the bench runs as I fit out the shop. The issue of shadow is definitely on my list of 'things to deal with' - I'm used to that from camping/car maintenance fun and games, and definitely don't want it when eyeballing a cutline...

Thanks to all.