Optical magnification gear ... SMT and general use..

[Mechatrommer]

Kiriakos... u posted a damaged smt in your olympus https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=727.0 gave me an idea. i modify my magnifier further to add USB Camera... so its a USB SMT Microscope Camera... hehehe...

not as good as the real thing though! need some post image editing and proper lighting to capture the image. Last pic shows a similar shape but different size to your damaged transistor i think, only R25 is written on it. not sure if its compatible with your BW.

[saturation]

Yes, that's why with a headset, you can pop the magnifying lens in and out, or even choose the right type [ on the visors they are user replaceable]  for the work being done.

once you work with a magnifier (i mean ANY magnifiers), you will limit your field of view angle, you cannot see whats surrounding. i once almost soldered my own hand (left) with iron on the right. i'll either use my bare eye for soldering, for really tiny parts, reflow is only the suitable answer, magnifier is only suitable for checking, IMO.

[cybergibbons]

I picked up a magnifying light the other day which is 1.75x, and it has an arm that swings in front of it that says 4 diopter on it, whatever that means for magnifications.

It's much better than other ones I have tried, and when using it, it pretty closely looks like this:

[charliex]

thats one looks pretty clear, is it a hand held loupe?

[cybergibbons]

thats one looks pretty clear, is it a hand held loupe?

It's the main lens, with a 4 diopter smaller lens (about the size of a loupe) in front of it.

The working distance with the main lens is high enough to solder, but with this it's greatly reduced. It's good for examining boards though.