Hi All, I am doing more mounting lately and using small 10X loupe is not quite handy anymore so I am thinking to upgrade to microscope under $100 - $150, can you recommend something?
I also not sure whether I need the one with oculars or the USB one that broadcast image to display, which one is more practical?
I believe USB microscopes have too much lag in the image to be of any use.
These work well for me:
http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/magnifier-led-headband/A-p8647596e
IMO, $150 is a very small amount to spend on something that will be satisfactory to you.
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I used a Lensman Microscope - $30 off eBay a Raspberry Pi, $35 and a Raspberry Pi camera $20
This is the result:-
Some one who works in a hematology lab told me that the images were better than she had to work with.
Hi,
You can get magnifiers in x5 ,x10 and x20, I find more versatile and 3D.
Tom..... 
I use +3.00 diopter reading glasses from the dollar store.
Thanks all, well, I guess so far the headband thingy worked the best I had one for some time but it was broken right off the bat with first use I repaired it yesterday and used only 1.9 magnification so I have some distance between board and face, all other higher magnifications required to be way too close to the board, no space to move soldering iron at all. Have to give a reading glasses a try later today too
Still saving cash for microscope though, I guess yeah, $150-ish is too small of a budget, shooting for $400 then, I still really want one.
One more note:
The magnifiers (loupes) used by dentists are tempting to get, but there is quite a bit of weight placed on the bridge of your nose so they become annoying to wear.
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Under these magnifiers do people still use their hands, or is there something that scales movement and feedback that people use? (I mean like a mechanical "waldo" - Remote manipulator - Wikipedia -- in two dimensions it's easy to scale a drawing like this, so I'd think "something" is possible to act like a mechanical waldo that also scales feedback...)
is this like not a thing that exists? you just have to use your possibly clumsy (or even trembling!) hands?
With high magnification, movement becomes an issue.
For example in laparoscopic surgeries there is scaling of movement.
For stuff like PCB work, accurate work is obviously done by machines.
And yes clumsy hands are a big problem, especially when you are old 
However, reflow and solder paste can do great results.
I like to glue some SMD components down prior to hand soldering.
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Lightweight plastic LED flip-back magnifiers:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-15-20-25X-Watch-Repair-Dental-Loupes-Binocular-Magnifying-Glass-LED-Magnifier-/111973806089?hash=item1a1228b009:g:enUAAOSwiYFXFa5b
curious48:
Under these magnifiers do people still use their hands, or is there something that scales movement and feedback that people use?
Fingers have very fine control, micro-manipulators are not needed for SMT work I reckon.
LarryD:
With high magnification, movement becomes an issue.
For example in laparoscopic surgeries there is scaling of movement.For stuff like PCB work, accurate work is obviously done by machines.
And yes clumsy hands are a big problem, especially when you are old
However, reflow and solder paste can do great results.
I like to glue some SMD components down prior to hand soldering.
.
I've come up with this design idea which I hereby place in the public domain. What do you guys think?
Will it work? Any objections?
This should solve the "clumsy hands are a big problem" problem. . .
Alternative link: http://imgur.com/GkHSSim (I imagine it actuating long tweezers, not pictured)
"manipulation" could include anything, a glue gun, soldering iron, whatever!
Wanted to post quick update: I ended up buying SE400-Z for $180 and could not be happier, price is great, quality is great, distance from surface to lens is so much I can easily move soldering iron in there. I think after oscilloscope this is my second best purchase for the lab. If we are talking about somewhat lower budget microscope for PCB works, I seriously recommend looking into this one.
I attached some pictures of recent PCB before and after magnification, you can see how tiny one diode is in there. And on other illustration you can see individual solder balls inside solder paste, even depositing solder paste is easier now with regular needle. Very happy.
for such work I've used a stereo microscope - x 4 ish for the work, x10 for inspection.
With that I can manage 0402's.
But some skilled technicians can do perfect work with no optical aids whatever - they're marvellous!
regards
Allan.
And they have young eyes. Focussing to 12cm was possible for me a long time ago (but I did
disassemble and rebuild mechanical watches quite speedily!)