Magnifying devices

[Wren]

I take off my glasses, seriously. I'm nearsighted enough that my eyes are, essentially, magnifiers. The mini comes into focus at about 5-6 inches from my eye and I can see everything fine without any eye strain.

 

My problem with this trick is then I can't see well enough to mix paint, or hit the paint with the paintbrush and so on. ;-> Also I have astigmatism as well as myopia and my eyes start to hurt if I look at stuff without my glasses on for very long.

[Tenebrien]

Another +1 on the optivisor. I've used one for about the last 6 years and have very few complaints, using it absolutely every time I put brush to mini. For 10 years before that I used the old magnifier & lamp combo and, while I got used to it, find there are better options these days. If you go for an optivisor, don't bother yourself with the optional xenon light attachment... I purchased one some time ago but the light it casts is yellow-ish which makes it useless for minis, imo. If there are any downsides to the optivisor it'd be these: it's kind of pricey, it looks ridiculous to onlookers, and I find it to be heavy and uncomfortable to wear during those 10+ hour sessions (I mitigate this issue by wearing a bandanna on my head and tightening the optivisor so that it sits higher on my forehead and not touching my ears).

 

...Unfortunately... I left my optivisor (and the masses of other painting supplies/boxes of miniatures) behind when I moved to England a few months ago. I was very incorrect in thinking it'd be reasonably inexpensive to have it all shipped over after I arrived. Long story short, I've an order of new paints/brushes/minis arriving at my doorstep tomorrow, and I'll be purchasing a pair of inexpensive magnified reading glasses at the local drugstore to get me by. They'll have to suffice for now and, who knows, maybe they'll become my new favorite ;) Cheers~

[Ishil]

I use the Optivisor too. I've never tried anything else. It does have its problems, it has high-power lenses so the field of focus is small and you have to bring the mini up close to your eyes. Also, sometimes the brush hits the optivisor. You have to either try to look under the 'visor or raise it if you look away from the figure. But that being said, I wear glasses, and I couldn't paint as well without it. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing any kind of detail work not wearing it.

 

Ishil

[TollHouseGolem]

Thank you all for your replies! I think what I'll do is go ahead and get myself some reading glasses (I've had the prescription sitting around for a couple of months now, I must still be in denial that I need glasses after 43+ years of 20/20 vision). Looks like the Optivisor is worth trying, based on the favorable words above. Again, thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on the subject.

 

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Vaitalla]

I'm a bit late but I know a world-class painter who swears by reading glasses and I myself have had favorable results from using an Optivisor, so there you go!

 

That said...remember that a detail that's so fine you can't see it with the naked eye is probably overkill. I once used the Optivisor to put tiny colored irises on a 28mm mini's eyes, but the detail was so small that when you took off the visor no one could see it!

 

--Anne