Wall-E?
Thats scary looking Wing,remind me not to go to the other side of town fo Halloween lol… Never looked at them from that view very funny looking.
John
Im with Hawkeye. I use 2.0 power reading glasses from the pharmacy at Walmart. Think I paid about 15.00 for them. They work just as well for me.
Nico
I have been using the Optivisor (lowest power) and have been happy with them. They are easy to flip up out of the way when you don’t need the magnification. I look really nerdy because I wear a terry cloth sports head band under the existing headband for comfort. Love the picture wingnut, now I know why my daughter laughs at me when I am modeling. She says it reminds her of the old guy in Toy Story that does the restorations [:D] I was intrigued by the dental loupes that are out there, but not enough to lay out the cash to try them.
Same here but I bought mine a few years back from Harbor Freight. They were about $5 a pair and I was worried about optical quality but they are very good. I am impressed. I have two pairs, one is 1.5x and the other is 2x I think.
I just looked at their site and I don’t think they sell them any longer though.
Th Donagan IS the Opti-visor it’s completely worth the $30 somthing dollars. I personally prefer the # 4 lens ( which is actually a 2X lens ) they break down like this:
| Item No. | Focal Length | Magnification |
|---|---|---|
| LX-3 | 14 Inch | 1.75x Power |
| LX-4 | 10 Inch | 2.00x Power |
| LX-5 | 8 Inch | 2.50x Power |
| LX-7 | 6 Inch | 2.75x Power |
I agree the #10 is too much magnifacation to really work. That $20 copy at hobby-expo is ok,unless you’ve ever tried one of these babies. Here’s a link to the maker:
In addition they also make an LED light that you can attach to it…very useful when you need concentrated light in a specific place. I also have an optional loupe, good for when I need to get in really close.
i’ve used donegan opti-visor for 25 years, and still have my original pair. i also bought another set in a higher power, gettin older you know. the glass lenses last forever. use em at work as a jeweler, use em at home for everything! i use the #4 and #5 and have the little loupe attachment for both.
Looking at picking one of these up this week - about time, right?
So is the 2.5x magnification sufficient for working with tiny PE and stuff? Was thinking the 2.75x might be the way to go, but the 6" focal point seemed pretty tight to me - you’re working DIRECTLY in front of your face at that point it would seem.
Any suggestions?
~Dupes ~ See my suggestion in my well produced post above? # 4 lens (X2 magnifacation) -->>is all I use ~ The 10 inch focal length feels natural to me.I’ve tried the #5 and it was near as good, maybe I’d just gotton used to not hunching over. I barrowed a friends #10 for one tedious job, but forget that, break out the electron microscope ! I’ts just too uncomfortable, and I’m not doing oil paintings on the head of a pin. #4 lets me see each scratch as I sand or file, it’s plenty of magnification for my 1/35 scale work ~ You may be one that likes the #5, but try measuring how far your eyeball is off your bench when you do detail work, probably a bit more than 6 or 8 inches, yes?
Indy
donegan is the only way to go.
Not a substitute for Optivisors, but what I have done that seems to work well for most close up work is to buy prescription reading specs. Cost isn’t as bad as you think and my eyes are different enough that store bought ones don’t cut it. I started with my standard reading prescription 1.25 and 1.75. (Something like that anyways.) I added 1.5 and 3.0 to each and ordered a pair of 2.75 / 3.25 and a pair of 4.25 / 4.75 specs.
I used Zenni optical, an online store and you can pick up two pair of specs for under $25 bucks shipped. My wife is a long time Opthalmic technician and she kind steered me along the way. Additional info you will need to order your specs beyond teh normal prescription info is your frame size (width???) and your PD. (Info that you should be able to get when you get your eyes checked.
With that said, I seem to do all I need with these two pair of specs BUT… I’ve not tried PE yet. I’m still new to modeling and PE isn’t a player until I get to the next kit in my mini-stash.
Cheers
D
With 8 dollar shipping, not a bad tool…
http://www.hobbytool.com/lightedmagnifierheadwearwremovableled.aspx
I ran out to Harbor Freight yesterday and picked up a pair of the $6 optivisor knockoff. For $6 its not to bad. the lights a a bit a cheap side but the lenses were better than expected. Can’t beat this item for $6 though.
Cheers
D
I have one of those as well minus the lights as I think the lights are a gimmick. They do have pretty good optical quality though and are comfortable to wear.
Whole things a gimmick. Not taking any chances with MY eyes.
~I was just reading Mark Bannerman’s book " Modelling Scale Figures ", and although it’s rather basic stuff, it’s interesting to hear how and why a master of our craft does things. Anyways, he talks about the nessessity of some sort of optics, and says you need at least some cheap reading glasses, but preferablely the Optivisor by Donegan with a # 5 lens. Similar to what I posted above about the #4 lens, he says about the #5 lens(not alot different), and like we both said,it’s up to personal preference…but the weaker ones will have you straining, and the more powerful ones are just impractical. ~in other words… Cheap optics may be better than no optics, if you are otherwise straining for hours at a time to work, but good quality optics are not very expensive and well worth getting .
does anyone know where you can order replacement black knobs that are found on the side of the visor? One of mine seems to have gone missing.
Presumably you can order replacement parts from Donegan, contact info follows: