I use a jewelers loupe for field identification. Haven't done any fieldwork in a bit, at least with plant ID, can't quite remember my magnification. Think it is 10 or 15x, the stronger one was a bit of a pain for me. It's helpful, though they can take a little practice, especially the stronger ones. My cheap jewelers loupe gets me most of the way through a dichotomous key, at which point I have to resort over to a dissecting scope. Most of us don't care to be bothered knowing the details of how a flowers ovaries are partitioned and other miniscule details like that, so that last bit may not apply here.

I love my loupe, I have a 21mm triplet 10X: amazon link

I originally got it to inspect small electronics, but use it much more often for looking at my plants.

One thing to realize with these (or the ones I've encountered anyway) is that focal length is around 1", and you'll want your eye quite close to it, so your eye needs to be able to comfortably be an inch or two from what you want to look at, which can be awkward in many situations, because your head can tend to get in the way. And lighting can be tricky, you want to avoid shadowing what you're looking at, also a challenge when your head is right on top of it.

Triplet is worthwhile, less distortion. I'm not sure how lens diameter really figures into it, but seems I would want bigger if all things are equal unless there is some down side beyond cost to bigger diameter. I also have been planning to get a 14X loupe, as 10X leaves me wanting more magnification a lot of the time.

Would like to learn more about what makes a loupe a better/worse, if there are focal length options, and what various things to look for. Because I do plan to get a 14X one soon.

I use mine for non plant related examination of random things all the time as well.

And oh yeah, I wear glasses. I use my loupe with glasses, no problem. I also sometimes use it without - I am very nearsighted, but this works fine in a loupe situation - my eye ends up a bit closer to the loupe but the image i see is crystal clear and bigger than if wearing glasses. Not sure how other kinds of sight issues would factor in this situation.

I also have a 2.5X jewelers visor type thing that I use for fine soldering work, and it definitely helps, but it doesn't provide what I consider to be very interesting levels of magnification for plants, and even for soldering the focal length is very close (and I was magnification was higher, but then focal length gets even shorter), and you don't want your face too close to the business end of a soldering iron - but it's just at the edge of usefulness for me. This also fits and works fine over my glasses - I don't have a link but its a Donegan DA-5 without any of the fancy leds lights or bells and whistles. The advantage is that it's hands free. However, you can't focus on anything farther than 8 inches from your face when it's on, which can make finding that part on your bench quite the challenge and comical at times.

Sorry for all the drivel but I am fascinated with magnification, perhaps because I'm so nearsighted and spent the early part of my life memorizing eye charts to avoid being forced into wearing glasses - and having NO IDEA what I was missing :)

Someone else here surely knows more about loupes and similar than me and will lay down some real info for us.

Awesome feedback!

Kim - Thanks for the great detail. Do you use your dissecting scope much still?

Daniel - Ahaha, I have heard of memorizing before. I'm sure being able to see properly was totally worth it. =P I have used a jeweller's loupe before, but I forget what magnification it was. I found it... a bit annoying to use but I think that goes away with practice? Do you think a loupe or magnifying glass is preferred?

Pagan - Did not expect such a collection of magnifiers! I just ordered a similar 60-100x scope, except in a cheaper model. Much appreciated for the tips. =D

Sure do, but I am also still in school. I still am taking advantage of the universities equipment, definitely intend on buying a dissecting scope. Field ecology and botany are kind of my thing, one way or the other I will need one of my own eventually. Also, I have found that the biggest difference between cheaper loupes can often be yhe quality of the milled metal more so the lens. Not always, but often enough to save $20-30. Also, of you have a university in your area, you can find these and often decent hand lenses in the bookstores, which are almost always open to the public. Handy as you can compare them in store. That and rock and mineral stores are the only places I typically see them.

I have a thing for tools. Magnifiers are much better than loupes for me. What I really want, no one makes. I want 10x, 20x and 40x magnifiers about an inch in diameter with maybe 5-inch handles so they can fit between branches and leaves.

The head gear (D in the pic) only became necessary when I started growing conophytums from seeds. And you'll love that scope! Except the underside of armored scales are gross that close. I wish I had the rig to photograph them.

I have been using a jeweler's loupe and cheaters as Ken has said. Now that Pagen has introduced some other items, I went on a hunt... found this. What do you thing?

Magnifier

Howard, the focal length on that one is only about an inch. My hunt went on a different direction and turned upthis one.

Ewwmayo,

Magnifying glasses are definitely easier to hold and focus, but in my experience they provide lower levels of magnification and significantly higher amounts of distortion. For me, the image quality I see through my loupe is worth the annoyance factor, which definitely becomes less annoying with practice. But you can't get away from the fact that it's always awkward to place your head inches from your subject.

It's very possible I just haven't experienced a good quality magnifying glass, and perhaps I'll try another soon.

I do have a cheap plastic version of the 60-100X "plant scope", but I find it impossible to hold steady enough to focus at those magnification levels, and most of the time I want to look at leaves that are still on plants (or stems or other parts of my living plants), so I rarely use it. It is really fun to use on leaves and other things you can lay flat on a table.

Pagan,

If you are interested in photographing the kind of thing you see through the little plant scope, there's a large variety of usb microscopes that make it really easy to digitally capture images at high levels of magnification. They range widely in price you should definitely look into this, I'm sure the results would be amazing based on the quality both of the photos and plants that you've posted.

Daniel

Nice magnifier but won't be functional in my greenhouse for pollinating Haws. I've been thinking about purchasing a 15x Optivisor®. It would be better than my 3.5x cheaters!!!!!

Howard, which model are you looking at? Here is their catalog (and wow there's about 10 different versions of every thing Pagan pictured plus 10 more in this catalog, o.O): donegan optical - TOOL PRON WARNING *NSFW* (Wallet).

Make sure you do a practice run with your head focal length distance away and make sure you're OK with your ability to manipulate stuff in that situation. I have the DA-5 which is 2.5X @ 8" and really I wish mag was bigger and focal length longer, but such is life and these are unfortunately inversely related :(