Magnifying Glass Recommendations

I'm looking for recommendations for a good magnifying glass with a glass lens. I bought one from the local stamp store with an acrylic lens and it's already scratched.

Also, where else can I go to buy magnifying glass besides my local stamp store?

The best place to buy magnifying glasses is at an optometrist or at a Telescope shop or you can buy lamps with magnifying glasses as well.
Regards
Horamakhet

Also try a hobby or crafts shop. I saw a nice loupe at Hobby Lobby not too long ago.

I have a stand alone plastic x8 loupe, clear bottom stand that lets the light in, I got from a photographers shop in a mall. It is nice and not heavy. Stamp in picture is face down on the scanner glass.





I have an adjustable band around the head flip down binocular lens with an added swing down loupe from a model railroad hobby shop they ordered from the Walthers railroad model shop in the USA. Or I did maybe? Years ago.

edit:
Walthers site searched for Optivisor:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search...ck=optivisor
Note, at bottom of their page they have illumination kits for these now, including a long wave UV lamp also that screws on.

Name on the inside is OptiVisor by Donegan Optical.





I have a couple of different hand-held magnifiers with glass lenses but plastic and rubber handle and wrap around lens holder that have miniature higher magnification lenses, one in the bigger lens and one in the upper part of the handle. Kind of too big for putting in the pocket though but I'd rather have this one for stamp examining anywhere. Good to have that extra little strong magnifier within the bigger one.

The one shown has a modified handle (because I used it so much and picked at it when thinking hard (ouch) and wore it out) with blue rubber hospital blood lab tourniquets (good grip) wrapped around the remaining bits of the handle.

I spit my coffee when I saw that one Puzzler. Literally laughing out loud.

I have an lamp with built-in magnifier. It that clamps to your desk and has a flexible arm. I like the concept, but the implementation is poor. The head of the lamp is too heavy for the clamp; the "snake" action of the arm won't hold it's position. So, I'd have to say NOT RECOMMENDED.

I think my lamp is a cheap knock-off of this Ott Lite http://www.ottlite.com/p-61-in-focu...ntinued.aspx It has been discontinued, but is probably still available at some of the retailers (Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Michaels, etc.)

I went and checked Amazon.com and they had more magnifying glasses than I knew what to do with. I was just hoping to find something retail. I'll check some office supply store's web site.

I also have a simple 10X stand alone loupe with acrylic around the bottom to let light in. Works quite well. What I'm hoping to work up to is a folding printers loupe like the one pictured here.




They fold up (or down) into a nice flat package and will be great for taking to the stamp club or sales. Also, they're just cool.

you could look at some philatelic supply shops or practically anywhere that sells such items, but good optics will cost you a bit more than cheap-o's obviously. Look at some jewelers loupes and large to mid-sized hand held magnifiers also..

Hi - I'm new here and late commenting on this thread. I used to be a binocular dealer and at that time picked up two useful tools. One is a Nikon slide loupe, 10x, similar to one mentioned in this thread. It's important to get a good one (they were about $60) as the cheap ones really distort things. Slide loupes may be getting hard to find too. The other is my beloved magnifier made by Zeiss Optical. Most inexpensive 50 mm/2 inch magnifiers yield about 2x; this one is 5x and optically very distortion free. They are measured in diopters - 5x is 20 diopters. This glass was about $120 some years ago but I see in this random link they are more now:
http://www.rehabmart.com/product/ze...er-2028.html.
I guard mine jealously - Highly recommended.

Yikes! $200! I could buy a lot of stamps for $200... Perhaps I can ask for it as Christmas present next year...

I have a jewelers loupe (10x) that works well. The key is buying a "triplet" loupe which means it has 3 lenses.

I found one for 25 dollars or so - I think I got it on Amazon.

Yes, a loupe is good, but the trick is to pay for a good one. Cheap ones are larger in diameter - a good thing - but poorer in image quality. The Bausch & Lomb "Hastings" triplet, long a standard, was about $60-$70 but maybe only 1/2" in diameter. Good for gems and minerals maybe, but less so for stamps. That's the beauty of the Zeiss magnifiers - their large diameter for the magnification, and that's partly why they're so costly. After I first posted to this topic I looked at a few other web sites and you can get them for less - try a web search for "Zeiss aspheric." Find a dealer that has one, and take some stamps in and try it.

The folding magnifier that jamesw shows is often sold under the name of "linen tester". That's my favourite of the many types I have tried. They're available in a few different magnifications, but 10x power is what I have and that's sufficient to see plate varieties.

Ryan

Is there a rating for distortion? I known Carl Zeiss lenses are top notch, but there have to be others out there that are at least close. I just don't know how to tell distortion from one brand to the next when comparing online.

I use a 25mm 16x jeweller's loupe, it is all I need.

I have a Jewelers loupe (10x) that works but I would like a larger one in diameter. Closer to one inch. My local jeweler ordered this one for me. It folds but it's only about 1/2 inch in diameter. He said he thought I would like it better cause I could put it in my pocket. I am going to try to get one from a different Jeweler in a couple days.