Has anyone got or used headband magnifiers?

[vossy]

g'day all, 

               after raising my bat on passing 50 i found the old eyes weren't picking

up the line and length as well as they used to. Is this a good tool to help me get 

my average back up?

 

cheers chris

 

p.s. sorry if non cricket country people don't understand.

 

 

[overdale]

I find powerful reading glasses easier to work with. Those visors get a bit cumbersome sometimes as they cut off your peripheral vision.

[GuntherMT]

I use a visor with a built in LED light that I rarely use (the light, not the visor - I use the visor all the time), and 4 changeable lenses with different magnification powers.  I use it for many 'up close' tasks.

 

I originally got one of those combination lamp/magnifiers, but I have problems keeping things focused in it as it doesn't seem to play well with my prescription glasses, so I got the visor and it works great for me.  Because of the prescription glasses, I can't really do the cheap drugstore reading glasses trick that a lot of guys seem to like.

Edited February 6, 2015 by GuntherMT

[hornet]

Will definitely make the ball look bigger Vossey, but I suggest you also get a bat like Davey Warner's........ KaBoom!!!!!!

Edited February 6, 2015 by hornet

[Canute]

I've used one for a while and like it. I also use a lighted magnifier attached to my work bench. I'd say the best thing to do is increase the lighting you work under. Old eyes don't adapt as well as younger eyes.

 

Those reading glasses you can buy in pharmacies work, too. Just try before you buy.

 

Do cricket balls have seams on them, like baseballs do? Different rotations make 'em do different motions (curve, slider, knuckler).

[kurtvd19]

I have used a similar type - Optivisor.  The one  had been using for years just wasn't cutting it any more and at a trade show I tried their glass lenses  - this made a bid difference.  Check the Optivisor brand with the glass lenses.  They are a bit pricier but they are so much better - 8 hours w/o eyestrain.  The Optivisor plus good bright light makes a world of difference.  A big help for aging eyes.

Kurt

[ccoyle]

I use a headband magnifier almost 100% of the time at my bench now - at the ripe old age of 51.

[tlevine]

I use an Optivisor for all of my modeling.  If it looks good at a magnified view, it will even look better with the naked eye.  I have an aftermarket LED attachment for the Optivisor.  The good points are the intensity of the light and the natural color of the light.  The bad points are that it eliminates shadows, making depth perception difficult at times.  Also the battery pack attaches to one side of the headband so unless you add a counterweight to the other side (rendering the headband extremely heavy) you have to tighten the headband a lot to keep it from listing to starboard.

[reklein]

I'm 70 and I've been using reading glasses over my regular glasses. That way I can look over the tops of the readers and watch the football replays. Be sure there's nothing on the insides of the readers that'll scratch your regular glasses. Bill in Idaho

[Elia]

I'm another user of Optivisor and highly recommend it.  It provides me with clear, magnified vision of my model(s) which my 52 year old eyes can't any longer.  I have two different magnification lense sets, and use each according to the task at hand.  The glass lenses are quite clear and distortion free.

 

I also have the optional LED light.  I find it can slide around on the headband a bit, and the battery contacts within the battery carrier aren't robust, so at times electrical contact is broken and the LED fails to light.  But it is useful (when working).

 

Overall I highly recommend Optivisor.

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[dgbot]

Without my glasses I am blind as a bat.  Half the work I do is with some magnifiers.

David B

[Tadeusz43]

Hi,

This is my best friend.

 

Tadeusz

[maltbyguy]

Hi I use the same as Tadeusz though the light is a waste of time I cut it off a bit less weight

Andy

[Bob Blarney]

First improve the lighting where you work.

 

Then go to the dollar-store, and buy a baseball cap to shade out glaring light.  Then go over to the 'reader/cheater' glasses display, and try out the different diopter strengths.  I bought diopter strengths from 1.5 to 2.5 for about $10 max.

 

I've got and used the other things -- Optivisor etc, and also have used $1500 surgeon's loupes.  My opinion is better lighting, and some cheap readers work just about as well  for far less money.  

[JesseLee]

I like them. I have the same one Tadeusz has too. I used the Optivisor for 21 years when I was a bench jeweler.

Edited February 7, 2015 by JesseLee

[robnbill]

I have a set and have used them a great deal. I also have magnifying lights, one on my workbench and one over my scroll saw. I used both extensively until I started rigging. As soon as my masts went on, I removed the one from the workbench and only used my headband magnifier. With the bench mounted magnifier I found it too easy to forget it had arms attached and sweep it accidentally across a spar or mast. It is easy to remove it since it just mounts in a hole I drilled into my bench.

[jollymillar]

Chris:

I use mine almost all the time, however I never use the lights on the visor. I found that a couple of different strengths of reading glasses from the drug store help and then use the visor for closer work. I always use the room light, and my bench is by a window, then use an adjustable arm LED light. Everything helps.

If I could just find something to stop my hand shaking my batting average back to 100 !!!!!  Might try a "scotch"   JM

[BANYAN]

Can't work without em Vossy; same issue on passing the 50 the pitch and ball seemed to get smaller - I use the same type as Tadeusz with interchangeable lenses (plastic).  I have tried some cheap loupes (eBay - China) but I find it difficult to adjust for depth perception when working with them.

 

Welcome to the club and a very long innings.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited February 8, 2015 by BANYAN

[vossy]

Hey Pat remember this "call the hands, call the hands, calls the hands, wakey wakey (and the next bit could be anything depending on who was on the bridge at the time) memories - great ones

 

chris

[shihawk]

I wear them all the time,and keep my 2.00 glasses on the end of my nose to look through if i want to "line up something ",as they do distort things , but i couldn,t work without them !

[Bob Blarney]

 

"If I could just find something to stop my hand shaking my batting average back to 100 !!!!! "

 

There are a couple of ways to steady hands.  One way is to touch your pinky fingers together or rest one hand on the other lightly.  Another way  is to build an articulated arm/wrist rest that can swing in/out, and with some height adjustment capability.  Also, fine work is usually easiest to do at elbow height with the shoulders relaxed.

Edited February 8, 2015 by Bob Blarney

[Glenn-UK]

Can't work without them. I use my normal reading glasses for general work and the headband with 4 interchangeable lenses for the detail work which I bought on Amazon. The internal light is no use, but I do  have a powerful adjustable white LED lamp, normal used for runners, bikes) with a head band but rarely have to resort to using that.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Optivisor is surely a good avenue and the quality of the lenses is good. There are other similar much less expensive but the quality of lenses are uncertain and this is not a good idea to work a long period with it. Also the light provide is also of bad quality  especially in the way that is unsufficient power. When buying  magnifier, a corresponding light source is also needed. 3 neons lights, the kind used by jewelers is a general light which can be use in most situations.

 

In the same price range as optivisor, there is also  this little support  with a  good lens,  and a clamp to go on a standard  pair of glasses.

[halbaby7]

Hey there,  as a retired master-goldsmith I can report that I used an Optivisor for over 40 years with no problems.  There are several magnification lenses to be had,  #10 being the strongest.  I preferred the #10 lense because of the close work in stone setting and occasionally I would 'bump' into something because of the short focal length.  I can't think of an application in modelling where you would be that close.

Hope this helps

Hal    

[BANYAN]

Only too well Chris (something to do with a reptile mostly  )  I still have a bosun's call at home (used it on the sleepyhead kids a couple of times.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

I slip my Optivisor on as soon as I sit down at my workbench - I'm hopeless without it.

 

I have two of them, one with the LED lights which have been totally removed as they didn't make much difference with the good lighting I have, and they got far too heavy after a while even with the batteries removed.

 

Also, as Toni mentioned above, if it looks good under 4x magnification it looks excellent to the naked eye .

 

  Danny

[tlevine]

And having a Xenon light source with fiberoptic lighting helps too!  Last week I became the proud recipient of a "new" headlight and light source that my hospital was throwing out.  I can only use cheaters with it rather than the Optivisor because of the headband but the pinpoint lighting is fantastic. 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Toni, with a headband, you can use more; like number 1-2-4-5-6

[JohnB40]

I have a pair of General Tools visor magnifiers that I have been using for about 20 years now,I can't work without them.  I have been thinking about a new pair of DA-3 Optivisors with the 1.75X  at 14" .Has anyone used a pair of these? It seems about the distance I am working at a lot of the time and I would like a over all larger sized view. I have to wear glasses under them for eye correction. Any feedback  would be appreciated. The old pair are unmarked,but I think they are 2X at 10"

 

John