Carson SureGrip 2x Acrylic Soft Grip Magnifier with 11.5x Spot Lens (SG-14)

This Carson magnifying glass is the third of its brand that I have had in my possession. It has a very nice handle, made of some type of Non-slip and soft-feeling material. The color palette of this magnifying glass is in an easy to take subdued gray, with touches of black, a classically elegant color choice.The shape, and the size of the handgrip are ideally suited for those with arthritis, or with limitations upon the use of their hands. In spite of the very large size of this glass, it is not nearly as heavy as it looks to be, another bonus for those that are ill, of have limited-mobility issues. The quality of this brand is superb, and the other two of this make, are precisely the same, except for the mirror portion being quite a bit larger, The product quality has held true during the time that I have owned all of these devices. Ass with the other magnifying glasses of this type,this is exceedingly sturdy, ergonomic, and well-designed for daily use. This size is quite convenient for those with limited vision due to a variety of reasons. In my case, I became ill and the accompanying medications caused my vision to worsen during the period of time that the medications were in use. I was quite depressed to begin with, illness is never much fun, but the fact of the illness having required the use of medications which almost completely ruined my vision was nearly a bridge too far for me to cross. Although knowing that the medications would eventually be discontinued, with the accompanying return of my normally perfect vision, that thought did not improve my attitude as my attempts to read practically anything were thwarted by the medication. As a last attempt to locate some form of something which would allow me to read, and to exist in a more comfortable atmosphere, I purchased this very large version of the same style of magnifying glasses which were already in my possession. I achieved truly magnificent results with the use of this much larger-sized glass. I was able to most conveniently, and yet at the same time comfortably move the glass far less frequently, as the glass was large enough to allow one to read nearly the entire page get of a book, and very large sections of a newspaper. The handle is well-designed, and has an easy-grip style making usage possible for even those with weak, or shaky hands. I was very glad when I was able to discontinue the medications causing the vision problems. However, I am carefully preserving these glasses for the future, knowing full-well that there will be a time my life when I will almost certainly need these magnifying glasses on a daily basis. Thes magnifying glasses are made of unusually high-quality materials, and will easily withstand a fall of several feet onto a rug, or hardwood floors. I can highly-recommend this CARSON magnifying glass. Not only in this size, but also in the various available sizes in which CARSON produces these excellent, and exceptionally resilient and useful magnifying glasses. Thank-you to CARSON for making my illness just a bit less onerous than was absolutely necessary. These products are excellent and high-quality magnifying glasses, with many possible applications, of which only a few were tested by me, but one could see that the possibilities were limitless.

This is a good quality magnifying glass for the price. It magnifies well, and it doesn't feel cheap. The plastic lens does offer a good job at magnifying, and it doesn't look blurry or distort like other plastic lenses I've used. The grip is soft and nice to hold as well. Use a soft micro-fiber cloth to clean the lens and extend the life & use of this, plastic lenses can scratch very easily. My only con to this purchase, is that I wish it came with a protective cover, I had to get one separately. Overall, I definitely recommend this and I'm certainly going to be buying the Carson brand again going forward. Two thumbs up!

I just wish I could have found this magnification on a smaller size magnifier.

It sports a nice, rubberized handle for a comfortable, sure grip, and comes with a cute zip-over cover with a soft liner. The 3 1/4 inch glass lens is decent. It also comes with a decent 10x spotter in the handle. At least one reviewer thought the 10x spotter was inadequate, but I was actually delighted. You just can't expect a 10x lens (especially as an auxillary lens in the handle of a regular magnifying glass!) to cover a lot of area at the convenient distance and the flat field of a lower power. You are going to get a small area, but that area seemed clear, bright and sharp enough to me. (If you use that level of power on a routine basis you would, of course, get a dedicated lens--or even a dissecting microscope for those really gorgeous 3-D views.) I especially appreciated the necessary fact that the 10x magnifier was not stuck onto the main lens as is customary for plastic lenses. Considering the price, how can you go wrong? Some users may wish to give this magnifying glass a 5-Star rating.

This is a combination review for the Carson SureGrip 2x Soft-Grip Glass Magnifier.(SG-10) and the Carson 5x MiniBrite LED Lighted Slide-Out Aspheric Magnifier (PO-55). I ordered both of these at the same time after buying and returning the very disappointing Carson LED Lighted Magnifold 2x Power Rectangular Magnifier (MJ-50). One of my complaints about the rectangular Carson magnifier I returned was that the 4.2" wide plastic lens had too much distortion. The 3.5" Carson SureGrip was the largest Carson magnifier I could find with a glass lense, so I ordered it. I'm glad I did. It's not quite as wide as i wanted, but the distortion-free lens makes up for it. Other features I like are: - Recessed lens so it's less likely to scratch (not likely with glass, but nice to have) - The small 10x magnifier isn't in the main lens, but is in the handle. A very nice feature! I didn't want a bifocal-style main lens - A zippered protective pouch for when you're carrying it to do research in a library - A soft grip handle that I don't see as necessary but which is a nice touch The glass lens of course makes this a somewhat heavier magnifier than one with a plastic lens, but I like the feeling of heft. Overall I'm really happy with this magnifier and expect to own it a long time. I ordered the 5x MiniBrite LED with some trepidation because I was so unimpressed with Carson's button cell battery compartment int he rectangular magnifier I returned. The 5x MiniBrite LED looked like a huge improvement until I tried opening it to install the three AAA batteries. The battery cover is supposed to slide about 1/4" and then pop out, but no matter how I tried it, the cover would not come out. I've been playing with electronics since I was a kid. I built my own ham radio at age 13 and have built my own computers for over two decades, but despite my experience, I could not get this @#$% cover to pop out. It finally cracked. I think it was just stuck. It detaches and reattaches with no problem now, but it has a crack extending nearly half its length. I had to return it to Amazon for something I did, but it really wasn't carelessness on my part, so I haven't decided what I'm going to do. Apart from the fragile cover, I like this light. It emits a surprising amount of light, so it will be handy simply as a flashlight when I'm working on my computers (I have over a half dozen). The lens is plastic, but it's small enough that distortion isn't as much of a problem as in larger lenses. You'll mostly notice distortion at the edges, and mostly if you hold it more than an inch or two above the page. One thing that's not immediately apparent from the pictures on the Amazon page unless you look closely is that the lens isn't really square. The lens appears to be oval but the frame is square, so you can't see anything that's in any of the four corners. It's not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. I'd still buy this magnifier despite it. As I said, the light is very bright. If you're using it in subdued light, it will make text really stand out against a white page. I strongly prefer the AAA batteries to the button cells in the rectangular magnifier I returned. Button cells are not only more expensive, but I can use my Eneloop rechargeable AAA batteries in this magnifier,which will reduce my cost over time. I highly recommend both these magnifiers. Just be very careful opening the battery compartment for the first time on the 5x MiniBrite LED.

I wanted a good quality magnifier for general use around the house and fixing small things. There is a lot of inaccurate information on Amazon (from reviewers and manufacturers) on magnifying glasses. The lenses are indeed glass, not plastic and it comes with a nice cover with a zipper to prevent scratches. The handle is rubber coated plastic, and provides a comfortable grip. I am not an expert in optics, but I am an engineer, and have had some basic education in this area. I am impressed with the quality of the magnification. The large lens provides 2x magnification with little noticeable distortion and the 10x lens, while small, provides good magnification also with little noticeable distortion. I have not made measurements of the distortion, but compared to a less expensive magnifier that I bought at the same time which has a smaller lens but very noticeable distortion the Carson lens is clearly much better quality. I have not measured the actual magnification, but the manufacturer's claims of 2X and 10X seem to be pretty close to the actual magnification, and is certainly not wildly exaggerated like some manufacturer's claims. All in all, this is a really nice magnifying glass at a good price

I bought two of these specifically to be used under water (scuba). Glass has a lower refraction of light so a glass lens works better under water than plastic. I have not used them yet but I can see they are more robust and a little heavier than a same size plastic one I have. They came with a little pouch which was a pleasant surprise. The handle, which seems rubberized, has a nice feel and has a hole for a lanyard, which is important in scuba. The price seems very reasonable.

Maybe I just got a bad one, but the optics are not even across the glass. There is a noticeable waviness to the magnification on one side of the glass. The image is not being magnified evenly across the entire diameter and I have an area of the glass where the magnification is wavy and limits the usable area of the glass itself as the image is distorted. This is not even across the the entire glass and only in one specific area which makes me point to a defect in the production. Will request a replacement and hopefully next one will be better, but for now this is a negative experience with this product. This should not have passed the QA. Update, received a replacement, optics are even worse on that one. Downgrading to a 1 star.