[summa_tech]

If you don't have space for a microscope, you can also get yourself the long-range (~400mm) 2.5-3.5x magnifiers that you may have seen your dentist wear. They're easily available on Amazon, not too expensive, and comfortable for hours of wearing. These are 2-element lenses that work really well.

Higher magnification variants (8x etc) are not nearly as comfy. They get quite long, heavy and expensive. I tried them and did not like them nearly as much. Also beware of short viewing distance, ultra-cheap products that are just a single lens element per eye.

[dtgriscom]

I have a Donegan DA-5 OptiVisor Headband Magnifier. They're nice, because the lenses are prism'd so that you can focus on something close without having to go cross-eyed.

[stavros]

This is a great tip, I use a loupe and it works amazingly well. Cost maybe $10?

[jrumbut]

Oh yeah, I'm sure that $300 microscope comes in handy but a cheap loupe gets you started. I've found all sorts of other uses for it too.

[tra3]

Can you share a link?

[stavros]

Yep: https://a.aliexpress.com/_Eyw9z6E

[tra3]

Appreciate that, ordered!

Hopefully it'll bring my soldering to the next level.

Can you recommend something for "helping hands"?

[stavros]

No problem! The only helping hands I'd recommend are https://omnifixo.com/. Pricy, but everything else I've tried has too much play and is useless to me. Omnifixo is just fantastic.