Hobbyists/Crafters- have a magnifying lamp you like?

[dmann]

To reinforce my middle-aged-spinster reputation, I have taken up knitting in the past year. I am on the hunt for a good lamp (open to a table lamp or a floor lamp) that will provide a good, clean light source and it would be helpful if it had a magnifier on there as well.

Knitters and sewers and crocheters all seem to love OttLites but I'm open to any suggestions you may have.
This model in particular gets rave reviews on the knitting forums http://www.amazon.com/OttLite-K94CP3-Adj..._5?ie=UTF8&qid=1427315342&sr=8-5&keywords=ottlite but I think the magnifier might not stretch down far enough if I'm sitting on my couch (I'm short.)

TIA-
DM

[Paul F.]

As someone who occasionally does up-close craft stuff, I can suggest instead of a magnifier lamp, a visor mounted set of lenses, and a good lamp.
The visor you can look "underneath" to see unmagnified, and then tip your chin down (or put the visor down a hair) to see through the lenses. Much more convenient than a fixed lamp you're having to wrestle around.

[dmann]

Paul F. wrote:
As someone who occasionally does up-close craft stuff, I can suggest instead of a magnifier lamp, a visor mounted set of lenses, and a good lamp.
The visor you can look "underneath" to see unmagnified, and then tip your chin down (or put the visor down a hair) to see through the lenses. Much more convenient than a fixed lamp you're having to wrestle around.

Admitting my ignorance here- I have no idea what a "visor mounted set of lenses" is. LOL! I don't really need the magnification all that often and I don't need super strong magnification, either.

DM

[Paul F.]

Something like this...

Edit: Gaaah! That pic was too big! here's a smaller one...

[cbelt3]

I tend to second the notion of magnifying glasses or equivalent. Even a pair of properly selected reading glasses may help, or bifocals.

I do like the Ott light for the color clarity... mrs. cbelt3 has excellent color vision, mine is so-so, but the Ott definitely makes the difference for a daylight spectrum.

[Paul F.]

The "cheap generic" ones are like $20, and generically called an "optivisor".

And they allow wearing glasses under them (in my case, safety glasses, or reading glasses).

[freeradical]

Paul F. wrote:
Something like this...

Edit: Gaaah! That pic was too big! here's a smaller one...

I've thought about picking up one of these, but I don't know how well they would play out with my reading glasses that I wear. In other words, could these be used without using my reading glasses? Would the only thing that changes be the distance to the object that gives sharp focus?


http://www.compleatnaturalist.com/mall/optivisor.htm

[dmann]

Paul F. wrote:
Something like this...

Edit: Gaaah! That pic was too big! here's a smaller one...

Ah. Yeah. No. Will never happen. I'm irritated wearing my regular glasses most of the time. Those would drive me insane.

DM

[Numo]

Look on eBay for a pair of GoogleGlasses and a copy of the VirtualKnit app. It comes with a coupon for a free scarf since the ones you make in the app are, well, virtual.

[Paul F.]

I thought exactly the same thing...
But I got used to them surprisingly quickly.
For the price of a cheap set, might be worth the try! Then get one with better lenses later.... IF you can stand 'em. :-)

dmann wrote:
[quote=Paul F.]
Something like this...

Edit: Gaaah! That pic was too big! here's a smaller one...

Ah. Yeah. No. Will never happen. I'm irritated wearing my regular glasses most of the time. Those would drive me insane.

DM