Lighting and Magnification

[fiveonomo 0]

I received an early Christmas/Birthday gift from the wife the other day, an Ott Lite with a magnifier on it.  I was talking with someone on here the other day, and forgive me I cannot remember who it was, about lighting and glasses and I have a couple questions.  I returned the lite today because the arm will not stay in position and it was just a royal pain to deal with, that big lamp in front of my vise.  My wife told me to return it if it wasn't working right or not the one I needed.  I took it back today and got a more slim line Ott Lite and I love the way this one lights up the fly and it is out of my way, but I am missing the magnifier.  The person that was helping me the other day here said he uses glasses/magnifiers from Readers.com, that way wherever he moves his head his magnification is with him and that makes sense to me.  Here is my question, are these glasses different from the readers I am wearing right now?  Are they actually called magnifiers?  Thanks in advance for the help.  I promise one day I will be able to help out and not just ask questions.

[shoebop 0]

get yourself a set of these.

[fiveonomo 0]

@shoebopthanks man.  I am hoping for a pair of glasses but I certainly wont rule these out.

[SalarMan 0]

I use readers in 3.25 magnification. They do all I need from the smallest trout flies to my big classic salmon flies. I recommend getting a pair with anti-reflective coating....that makes for greater comfort during long time over the vise. Hope this helps.

[gillage 0]

I wear glasses normally but use clip on cheaters +3 or +4 magnification when tying flies.

I use led clip on my fly tying desk lights and find good lighting and some magnification works for me.

YMMV

[cphubert 0]

I have both the OptiVisor (shoebop's post) and a range of reading glasses +2.25 to 3.00. both work well with a good light source. the visor you can tilt your head up for normal focus and the reader you have to look over for normal focus. It really depends on what you get comfortable with. the readers are much less expensive but not as durable ($2.99 @ ocean state job lot). My visor came by way of a friend that works in avionics repair and he swears by them and can wear them most of day with his prescription glasses and he has interchangeable lenses. for long tying sessions I usually wear the visor and lift my head to find things on the bench then drop to focus on the fly. I tried a nice fluorescent lighted magnifier and could not get used to it and found it unusable for me but everyone is different.

[skeet3t 0]

3 hours ago, SalarMan said:

I use readers in 3.25 magnification. They do all I need from the smallest trout flies to my big classic salmon flies. I recommend getting a pair with anti-reflective coating....that makes for greater comfort during long time over the vise. Hope this helps.

Most pharmacies have them. Our CVS pharmacy has a wide range of magnifications.

[mikechell 0]

Dollar Tree has them, too.  

[fiveonomo 0]

Thanks everyone!

[RickZieger 0]

If you are using a magnifier on a stand of any sort look thru the top of your glasses and not he bifocal for more magnification.

It is an optics thing. 

Rick 

 

[SilverCreek 0]

From a biological standpoint, why do older folks need reading glasses? Why can kids focus on objects that are 5 inches in front of them and we seniors don't have arms long enough for use to be able to read a menu without reading glasses?

The reason is that we lose visual accommodation over time. The closer we can get to an object and focus on it, that larger the object looks to us. So as we get older, we need to move the object (flies) farther away to focus on them, and they look smaller. That is why we all eventually need magnification (reading glasses). They don't actually magnify objects. The allow us to focus on closer objects, and because the object are closer, they look bigger!

That is point 1. 

Ever wonder why restaurant menus are harder for us to read in dim "romantic lighting." That reason is Point 2 = we need brighter lights. In the days before autofocus and auto exposure cameras, we had to set the F-stop and the exposure time. Our eyes are the biological equivalent of cameras and the same optical laws that apply to a picture cameral apply to our eyes. Our eyes have F-stops (pupil size) and exposure time but they are set automatically. Our eyes open the pupils to let in more light (lower F-stop) or close the pupils (higher F-stop) to let in less light to normalize the light reaching our retinas (the film)

The higher the F-stop, the smaller the lens (pupil) opening and the lower the % of light that exposes the film (retina). However, the higher the F-stop, the larger the depth of field. So a larger F-stop = a smaller lens opening = a larger % of the field is in focus. The more constricted our pupils, the closer we can get to the fly because our eyes have a larger depth of field. That is why bright lights allow us to see the fly better. Brighter lights constrict our pupils so we can get closer to the flies and still keep them in focus. Because the flies are closer, they look bigger. For the same reason, brighter lights allow us to read small print better because we can focus closer even without reading glasses.

https://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-depth-field-beginners/

So bright lights and reading glasses is all about allowing us to focus on the flies when they are closer to us.

Use the brightest lights or even two fly tying lights and you will not need special magnifiers. A pair of reading glasses will suffice.

[chugbug27 0]

Thank you @SilverCreek! 

[Sandan 0]

@fiveonomo I think that was me. I use readers.com cause they have higher magnifications than my local pharmacy. They might be magnifiers because I think readers are more like bifocals. But I'm not 100% on that. I like the whole lens to have the magnification. You can search on the magnification you want. Personally I use 4.00+ 

[fiveonomo 0]

@Sandan, yep it was you, thanks.  Any idea what model you are using or are they all the same thing on that site?

 

[Sandan 0]

@fiveonomo  Beats me what model. Inexpensive, they have a ton of different models. I think I spent 11 bucks or so, maybe 15 max