I know that many have commented on lighting and magnification equipment’s qualities and lack there off, but those responses are scattered around this forum.
Let’s make a thread that collects this type of information similar to the OH SO USEFUL and great threat about legitimate machines.
I found these dental loops, and would like to know what the professionals would think about them:
ALMORE Headband loops <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
what about this set of lighted magnifying loops. it looks cheesy, but would it be good enough for the ocasional at home hair removal?
Eve, can you change the thread title? It’s spelled “loupe”. Not that I get off on correcting people’s spelling, but it would confuse someone who wanted to do a web search on products.
oups. i can’t change it anymore. i guess we only have a few hours after the post to make corrections. Andrea could.
I really need this forum to have a spell checker feature like all others that i have ever seen.
Your correction is actually very useful b/c i now understand why i had a hard time finding “loops” on eBay <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
thanks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Bono (The Blend Method) has an excellent section on lighting and magnification, in which he ranks the equipment in order: magnifying lamp, single lens loupe, binocular (multilens loupe), and surgical microscope.
Magnifying lamps are initially attractive, as they offer high magnification for a very low cost, but they have a number of problems: The hair you are epilating has to be very near the center of the lens, or the view of the follicle is distorted. This means you are constantly adjusting the lens position. If the patient shifts even slightly, the lens has to be adjusted.
The spacing between your eyes is large enough that when the view through one eye is on-axis on the lens, the view through the other eye is off-axis, so each eye sees a different view. You virtually have to close one eye.
On lighting, while on the subject of magnifying lamps: The circle fluorescent magnifying lamp typically has a poor color rendering index (CRI). That means that, especially with lighter hairs, the contrast between the hair and skin disappears. Furthermore, the light is diffuse and so there are no shadows - which are important for fine hand-eye coordination. By far the preferable light source is halogen, which renders colors perfectly and shows distinct shadows. I use a halogen spotlight (available from a typical office supply store - MR16 bulbs are available with a 10 degree spot), which is a reasonable approximation of a fiber optic halogen illuminator.
The spacing between the lens and skin is narrow enough to make working between the two awkward.
When your face is close enough to the lens to make the magnification useful, you end up breathing on and fogging up the lens.
James added: Heat from the circle lamp can cause discomfort, and a person who moves under one can bump the lamp, and may get burned by the bulb as well.
Single lens loupes are identified by their positioning a single lens in front of the eye. This is the same thing as holding up a magnifying glass. The problem is that the loupe can’t practically be positioned very far from the eye, which it needs to be in order to adequately magnify. These range in price from $5 or so up to about $50.
Binocular loupes use a multiple lens light path to allow high magnification as well as close placement to the eye. They look like a miniature pair of telescopes mounted to headgear. The cost ranges from $75 up to $500 or so.
Surgical microscopes provide the very best imaging, and cost upwards of $5000.
James added: Stereo Scopes and Loupes have the advantage of keeping your vision and ligh equipment far enough away from the client that they can sneeze and not endanger themselves or the equipment. Fiber optics keep all of the heat of the halogen lamp away from the client, although many halogen spot lights can be placed far enough away to not have a problem with this, however, the electrologist would still have to move the spot, and therefore touch the light source many times during treatment. With a fiber optic built into the scope, when you have set your vision, you have set your light as well.
Lastly, stereo scopes give you a field of vision that stays still and doesn’t shake, like binoculars that are worn on the face, and don’t need one to put one’s eyes all the way on them to see.
All that said, decent work can be done with a circle lamp, but for someone who was making it their life long profession, I would expect enough dedication to have the best equipment. It only increases their ability to work better, and faster. The more comfortable your clients, the faster you get their work done, the more clients you will have, and the more work each will be willing to get done.
Single lens loupes are identified by their positioning a single lens in front of the eye. This is the same thing as holding up a magnifying glass. The problem is that the loupe can’t practically be positioned very far from the eye, which it needs to be in order to adequately magnify. These range in price from $5 or so up to about $50.
Binocular loupes use a multiple lens light path to allow high magnification as well as close placement to the eye. They look like a miniature pair of telescopes mounted to headgear. The cost ranges from $75 up to $500 or so.
This helps a lot in understanding why some loopes are so cheap and others so expensive. All the ones i listed above are single lense.
thanks for the info.
let’s keep posting any good deals on good equipment that we find on the net.
The WALDMAN FLUORESCENT SWINGARM MAGNIFYING LAMP shown gives the same vision aid as the typical electrolysis circle lamp. You should understand that there is a difference between Diopter and Number times magnification (3 diopter = 2x’s magnification) One diopter is regular life size. Each additional diopter is .5 times additional to life size. So in this way, 2 diopter is 1.5 times life size, 3 diopter is 2x’s life size, and you have to go to 5 diopter to get to 3x’s life size. Most places only carry 3 Diopter, 5 Diopter and 9 or 10 diopter, which would be 4x’s life size, and 4.5 times life size respectively.
In my experience for best results, an electrologist would want between 3 times life size, up to ten times life size for fine vellus hairs and thick clear hairs.
Loupes are good for magnification, but one may find the fact that they are on your head to be a distraction, as your head moving will make your field of vision shaky as well. You must also move your head to the right focal distance and stay there, or your vision goes in and out of focus.
The head band set up you showed, is low magnification, and also has the head shake problem as well, but since it is not sitting on your nose, it is a little less distracting.
For a great set up on the cheap, I would suggest a higher magnification set of loupes set on a stationairy post or armiture so that your movement doesn’t make the field of vision shake. You just have to make sure that the loupes are set for the spread of your eyes so that you go from seeing two circles of vision to only one. Each person’s setting will be different, but the loupes will allow you to lock in your setting when you find it.
I do know about the difference between diopter and magnification strenght. Here is a very nice little chart for those who don’t know:
I am not sure that I’m imagining exactly what you mean by stationary loops not attached to your head. I have not seen anything like that on the web.
I use a halogen spotlight (available from a typical office supply store - MR16 bulbs are available with a 10 degree spot), which is a reasonable approximation of a fiber optic halogen illuminator.
How many watts are the light bulbs that you use, and how do you deal with the heat that they emmit? People at work were telling me that it’s not a god idea to have a halogen lamp for close up work b/c of the high heat. They were suggesting the compact fluorescent bulbs in stead.
But i know that everyone here recommends the halogen as the best source of light so i wanted to double check about the heat. how strong should the bulb be then to be bright enough yet not too hot for our purposes?
How many watts are the light bulbs that you use, and how do you deal with the heat that they emmit? People at work were telling me that it’s not a god idea to have a halogen lamp for close up work b/c of the high heat. They were suggesting the compact fluorescent bulbs in stead.
I have two 10 degree spot MR16 bulbs, one 35W and one 50W. I can’t easily tell the difference between the two. When I put the 50W bulb about a foot away from the skin, it still doesn’t noticeably heat, yet it provides a nice bright spot several inches across. In short, the halogen heat really is not an issue. Perhaps if it was a warm day and you were shining a 150W floodlight.
In any event, a little heat appears desirable, as it increases circulation and thus moisture content in the work area of the skin.
You need as narrow a spot as possible because you want the spot bright, so as to use your eye’s retinas optimally, but if a large field is bright the eyes get too fatigued. Also, it’s easier to concentrate when only a small area is illuminated.
The narrow spot bulbs don’t seem to be readily available at retail. The lamps that hold them are easy to find, but not so the bulbs. I ordered mine from some web site, I forget the name.
One could try a compact fluorescent, but I’m skeptical of its usefulness. The shadows you get with parallel, non diffused light greatly help hand-eye coordination. For example, the needle’s shadow is great help in judging how high the needle is above the skin.
I would emulate surgeons and the equipment they use. Dentists, too, use high intensity parallel beam light sources. I don’t recall the heat from a dentist’s lamp making me uncomfortable, except once when my eyes accidentally got in the way!
ok. thank you. that was very useful information. i was wondering about the importance of a spot vs. difused light.
thanks. now i know what to buy!
Are binocular loupes meant to be used for things looked from far away or up close? I just bought one from Ebay and the instructions state that the “focal distance is 15-17 inches.” Does that mean it can focus as far as 17 inches or what? I’m starting to think I made bad purchase.
it means that your face will be 15 to 17 inches away from the thing you are looking at. You would appreciate this if you ever had to use a circle lamp that had to be 3 inches from what ever you were looking at.
OKay, that’s what I thought, and it’s what I did. The instructions state to “use your thumb as a focusing point. Then after focusing each telescope separately, adjust the inner ring to get a unified image.” Well, that’s what I did, and it didn’t work! Not only was the image not well focus at 17 inches, I couldn’t see it as one image.
Does having near-sightedness (I can’t see from far away) affect it? Or maybe I just bought a scam.
I am sure that you are just having trouble in finding the focus, and setting the distance apart for your eyes.
If you measure the distance between your pupils, you get a number that is used to set your eye appliances like binoculars, loupes and such. Mine is 72. (a little on the wide side, but with a fat head like mine what would you expect?) Ladies usually have a much lower number.
What I suggest for you is that you close one eye. put something on a table and move back and forth until you have that thing in focus so you can see it out of one eye. Now, you can adjust the distance between so you get to the point of seeing one “circle of focal vision field”.
At that point you would be ready to use the loupes for anything needing only to adjust the distance from the item that you are.
Since loupes make you use close up vision, I don’t know that your eye problem comes into play here. If it did, you would only need to wear your contacts, or eyeglasses in addition to the loups.
You just have to play with these things untill you find what works for you.
Sophie, do you have a maker, model number, or picture of these loupes?
My loupes are fixed focus, meaning I had only to adjust the spacing and angle of the eyepieces.
I used a small black mark on a white piece of paper to test focus and alignment. You’ll be wearing the loupes for an extended period of time, so you want the focus to be very comfortable.
I bought it off Ebay from some company called Bio-Medical Technologies based in LA. It says Task Vision on the box though.
They provided poor service cause they mailed it two weeks after I paid and haven’t replied to my email.
Unfortunately, I’m going to return it. I think I paid too much ($140!) for a poorly made product. Also, I find loupes kinda awkward to use; if I was doing my arm and I had to have it more than a foot away from me, then I’d rather use a magnifying lamp.
Ouch - they’re $125 at Prestige.
I notice Prestige has a better assortment of loupes than they used to.
Here’s a nice buying guide for loupes Loupes
Also, I find loupes kinda awkward to use; if I was doing my arm and I had to have it more than a foot away from me, then I’d rather use a magnifying lamp.
That’s a really good point. Magnifying lamps have their issues, to put it mildly, but they may be the best option for doing work on yourself.