Magnifier

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A magnifier or magnifying glass will prove to be a very useful tool.

While you might cosplay as Sherlock Holmes all the time and want that big handheld round glass, what you will need is a 10x (10 power) magnifier. Anything less and you will need something more powerful sooner than later. Anything more and you will be mostly looking at paper fibers. There are quality pocket ones with glass lenses that will last a lifetime and can easily be carried to shows/bourses and stores.

What is most important is sufficient lighting, especially as you get older. All the magnification in the world won't help you without enough light.

Meanwhile, be aware that as you increase magnification, the working distance become shorter and becomes shorter very quickly as you increase each number of magnification. The field of view also decreases dramatically as magnification goes up.

What might be useful in addition or generally, is a magnifier on an arm and with lighting. These will probably be around 3x. There is also the OptiVisor, a magnifier on a headband that goes down to 4x without a loupe attachment. This uses optical glass, can be worn with eyeglasses and is very comfortable. Therefore, it is suggested to avoid imitations.

USB microscope
These are specialist tools, since they begin at about 20-25x; much higher and you are only looking at paper fibers. So there is limited use for stamp collectors. That said, if flyspecking is your thing, a USB microscope can be very useful.

I've found very cheap ones fill the bill, although you might need an additional light source. You can spend more (a lot more), but with its limited phiatelic uses, unless you are going to use it for something else, it's not worth the money unless you just like to buy gadgets.





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