I am looking to buy my first pair of loupes.
We have had a few loupe company reps roll through town recently, hawking their wares.
The only problem with the visits are that it is very hard to do a decent comparison of all the loupes - you only get to play with them a short while and the reps come on different days (different months actually).
Based on my dealings with reps, extensive reading of virtually every loupe thread on sd.net and other sites, and using other peoples loupes, I have sorta come to a choice between three brands.
1) Orascoptic HiRes Plus 3L (3.0)
2) Heine HPR 3.5
3) Zeiss Eyemag Pro 3.3 or 3.5
To me, the orascoptics had markedly inferior optics - but I know that this partly due to the fact that they simply were not set up for my eyes. But they were very light.
The Zeiss and Heine had amazing optics, and I cannot really tell the difference between two, though I have heard many times from people I know, professors I have talked to and "internet consensus" that Zeiss are simply the best in terms of optics. Also, another reason that I cannot really tell the difference between the two is simply that I didn't see the loupes on the same day.
I was wondering what someone might say that would make me choose one brand over the other. Prices are all within what I can afford (glad I got a very good job in my last vacation 😀), no-one I know has had bad experiences with customer services, and all three are reputable companies.
The only downside of the Zeiss loupes is that the frame doesn't seem to come in a sport option - I would value this only because the sport frame generally seems to have better coverage and therefore protection of the eyes.
Zeiss and Heine seemed to be of the same weight, but I'm not too sure about this. Comfort didn't seem to be a problem when I tried them and those I know with Zeiss say that while they may be on the heavy side, they have no trouble with them at all while working.
Any help is appreciated.
We have had a few loupe company reps roll through town recently, hawking their wares.
The only problem with the visits are that it is very hard to do a decent comparison of all the loupes - you only get to play with them a short while and the reps come on different days (different months actually).
Based on my dealings with reps, extensive reading of virtually every loupe thread on sd.net and other sites, and using other peoples loupes, I have sorta come to a choice between three brands.
1) Orascoptic HiRes Plus 3L (3.0)
2) Heine HPR 3.5
3) Zeiss Eyemag Pro 3.3 or 3.5
To me, the orascoptics had markedly inferior optics - but I know that this partly due to the fact that they simply were not set up for my eyes. But they were very light.
The Zeiss and Heine had amazing optics, and I cannot really tell the difference between two, though I have heard many times from people I know, professors I have talked to and "internet consensus" that Zeiss are simply the best in terms of optics. Also, another reason that I cannot really tell the difference between the two is simply that I didn't see the loupes on the same day.
I was wondering what someone might say that would make me choose one brand over the other. Prices are all within what I can afford (glad I got a very good job in my last vacation 😀), no-one I know has had bad experiences with customer services, and all three are reputable companies.
The only downside of the Zeiss loupes is that the frame doesn't seem to come in a sport option - I would value this only because the sport frame generally seems to have better coverage and therefore protection of the eyes.
Zeiss and Heine seemed to be of the same weight, but I'm not too sure about this. Comfort didn't seem to be a problem when I tried them and those I know with Zeiss say that while they may be on the heavy side, they have no trouble with them at all while working.
Any help is appreciated.
