Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are some good things about this magnifier, for what it is. The one I received has a LOT of spherical and chromatic aberration. Basically, what this means is that only the image towards the center of the lenses is going to be clear and in focus. The more magnification you try to get, the smaller and smaller your region of clear, undistorted image is going to get. This means that the large lens is effectively not a 5X lens for most uses. It's more like a 2X lens, and furthermore it's a 2X lens that's only 1/2 the diameter of the physical item. There are some good things about the design. The "checkerboard" motif is attractive, and it seems well built for a plastic item. My plan has always been to clamp this in a table vise to provide a cheap lighted magnifying desk lamp, for which purpose it will be adequate. However, considering that the central functionality is magnification, the cost-cutting that went into the lens manufacture is quite unfortunate. UPDATE: I bought a different lens from the neighborhood hardware store. Being able to compare the two items makes it clear that the lens I got is pure crud. My new magnifier doesn't have the "loupe" but it has the same functionality, a larger physical lens, of which about 9/10ths is useful. I am changing my review to 1 star. If you're going to buy this, be aware: the quality of the lens may be abysmally low, either by cost-cutting design or through poor quality control.