I've recently moved to an eyepieceless microscope, and it's really quite an improvement over traditional stereo eyepiece microscopes. They are made for SMD work

I've recently moved to an eyepieceless microscope, and it's really quite an improvement over traditional stereo eyepiece microscopes. They are made for SMD work and part inspection, and generally max out at 20x (which is plenty of magnification for SMD work). To see into the microscope, you look straight ahead into a viewing window. There's a huge margin of error for head position; you can move your head around quite a bit and still keep the image visible. Additionally, it's much less strain on your back, as you're not hunched over. Your focus distance when looking into the microscope is the same as when you glance down at the work, significantly reducing eye strain. These microscopes can also be used with glasses. (Quick summary video here[1]) One of the coolest parts of this setup is that you can actually change your 3D view of the object simply by moving your head around. You can actually "look around" the magnified object. It's hard to describe how impressive this is -- experiencing it in real life is quite astonishing. As far as I know, there's only one eyepieceless microscope on the market: the Mantis. Buying these new[2] is very expensive ($3000, plus $500 per objective lens), due to the massive optics inside the unit. However, you can find the older models on eBay for $500, sometimes even including some objective lenses. I recently got a cheap one from eBay that needed a bit of repair, and now have it mounted to my bench for general inspection and SMD work. If you end up going this route, I recommend replacing the MR11 halogen bulbs with LED bulbs. Dave Jones (of EEVblog) is a big fan of this, and has a good video describing it[3]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpN83dv0f7Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpN83dv0f7Q [2] http://www.visioneng.us/products/stereo-microscopes/mantis-elite-3d-eyepieceless-inspection-microscope http://www.visioneng.us/products/stereo-microscopes/mantis-e... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3o0EWHEH08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3o0EWHEH08