Gypsy, those are excellent questions! Ones that I need to chew on a bit before I go back to doing my research.
1. Electric over USB is preferred.
2. If there were three options, I would only use daylight. Though I could go with LED and use my Ott lamp for color matching and the magnifying lamp for detail work.
3. I think most of the cheaper ones have LED lights that are not replaceable. I haven't found much information about replacement bulbs, especially for the off-brand lamps.
4. I thought that I could use my Ott task lamp but if I was to pay extra for a lighted magnifier, I'd want one that was bright. Hard to know when buying online. :-(
5. Arm adjustment is one of the more critical aspects. I really wish I could try one out in a store before plunking down my money.
6. Here I'm lost. The stronger the magnification, the closer our lens and face needs to be to the project. I have an 8x makeup mirror and I think that magnification would be much too strong. I *think* my hand-held is 3x, which is just about right.
One of the biggest complaints I've read in the reviews is that the arm is often too short to properly adjust over their project. Another reviewer commented on how the fixed head made it too hard to get even magnification over a project laying flat on a table.
Hands-free magnifying glass
