TRIXESTRIXES Jewellers Lens 40 X 25mm - Loupe Eye Magnifier with LED Light

This is a powerful hand lens. The physics behind it is a little complex since it is a thick lens. The physics formulae you learned at school apply only to thin lenses. There is a confusion between the [power] of a lens and its [magnification] and sellers use this to up-sell things like this. If you're interested in the physics and maths of lenses, Google it!I measured the focal length of this lense to be about 2.5 cm (= 0.025 m). That gives it a power of +40 dioptre. The formula is 1/(focal length measured in metres). The magnification of a lens is defined as 25/(focal length of lens measured in cm). That gives this lens a magnification of about 10x. As I said, these formulae apply only to thin lenses, so these are only roughly accurate.To summarise:Power = +40 DMagnification = 10XIf you see a hand lens advertised with a magnification of much more than 10X, they are actually telling you the power of the lens. To get the magnification, divide by 4.To use a powerful lens like this, the technique is to hold the lens against your eye and bring the object close to the lens until it's in focus. When I do this, the object is on a level with the end of my nose. Looking at a newspaper picture through the lens means that I have to put my nose on the newspaper! All lenses of this power give a clear image in the central area and some distortion and false colour at the extreme edges. This lens is better than most in this respect.The LED light is very bright and illuminates the object very well.The lens housing is made of plastic and the cover is made of aluminium. The construction is lightweight. It's more something that you'd keep in a drawer for home use rather than something you'd carry round with you in your day bag in the great outdoors.I ordered it on Saturday evening and it arrived the next Monday morning which is amazingly fast.All in all, it's a very good item that does the job as well as any other lens and is well worth the very modest price.

I buy, restore older fountain pens, and collect new ones, and a loupe is almost a necessity to enable me to examine a nib to check for misalignment and damage.I needed a loupe that was had a least a 30x magnification with a lens that didn't distort the view, and a swift look around Amazon found the TRIXES, which was a 40x, had a glass lens, and best of all, a two led illumination setup (which has proved to be a real boon). It comes in its own shaped plastic box, with three LR927 batteries (more about that in a minute), and a small metal item with two prongs (keep it safe, it's the small 'spanner' you use to open the battery bay.The light provided by the LED's, is, for me, the unique selling point. After owning the TRIXES I couldn't go back to a loupe that didn't illuminate what I was inspecting, that alone knocks all the non illuminated loupes out of the ring for me.There's nothing worse than having to walk around trying to get the best natural light source on the item you are looking at. The Trixes deals with that issue perfectly.Two tips - put a smear of petroleum jelly or silicone grease around the screw thread of the battery housing before tightening it up. I didn't first time out, and the plastic tends to swell if you leave it in the sun, making it difficult to free when you need to change the battery.And secondly, if you use a loupe as I do, on a daily basis for about 30 mins to an hour, expect the batteries to last about 3 weeks before they need replacing (this isn't a drain on resources, you can find them as cheap as £1 for 24).So, all in all? I'm very happy with this cracking little piece of kit, and as the title of the review says, I wouldn't be without it.Highly recommended if you do any detail work whatsoever.Hope this helped!

I should have read the one star reviews before ordering. I have a 10x loupe and needed to see more detail so I ordered what I supposed is a 40X loupe. I was surprised to realise that this loupe is actually a 10X and does not show anymore detail than I needed. You might not realise this if you don't have a comparison but this is imply cheating.DON'T BUY!!!!

Not a fan. I bought it to examine the hallmarks on some rings but could never really get close enough to focus on them, even after removing the cover. Possibly my fault- there are many different types and many different magnifications. What wasn't my fault, however, was that after 3 days the light stopped working.I have it, I may need to use it again, in which case I'll struggle on with it but I don't imagine it will have become any more pleasant an experience.

For the price, it seems quite good. Yet to see how long the lights last (see other views). There is some small color distortion around the edges of the field, but nothing too serious. The lights REALLY help, as that is a major issue with closeup work. Nice packaging, and if you look up the price of replacement batteries, they are peanuts each. Would make a great alternative gift for someone. Contray to other reviews, main body is plastic with an aluminium cover. Main issue is that you need really small stuff on hand to take a look at :-)

The magnifier arrived very quickly, I unpacked it and my first thought was how flimsy the aluminium casing was. I would prefer a stronger plastic casing, as I don't think the aluminium one will stand up to life in my pocket without getting bent out of shape. I switched the leds on and only one of the two worked at first, I fiddled with them and both started working, but they started to flash erratically between dim and very bright. The magnifier itself is fine, but the flashing light is a distraction. For the money, I can't be bothered to go through the returns process. I can't complain too much I suppose, it didn't cost a fortune and you get what you pay for.An update to my earlier post: I have taken the batteries out, cleaned and replaced them, making sure that they make good contact and that appears to have solved the problem. The light is now bright and steady, so I'm a lot happier with my purchase. I still think the casing is a bit flimsy, but it didn't cost a fortune. All in all I'm quite happy with the magnifier.