Magnifiers expalined.

What is an Electronic Magnifier?

An Electronic Magnifier is simply a magnifier that uses a camera to enlarge objects. Optical magnifiers use glass or plastic to enlarge objects.

Electronic magnifiers are often referred to as CCTV (Close-circuit television), this shouldn’t be confused with security cameras also known as CCTV.

What is the difference between an Electronic Magnifier and an Optical Magnifier?

Optical magnifiers have a fixed magnification level (measured in times or dioptres, and a maximum of 14x or 56 dioptres), this is determined by the size and thickness of the glass/plastic. Optical magnifiers are also fixed focus meaning the magnifier needs to be the perfect distance from the object and the eye, known as the sweet spot.

Electronic Magnifiers, on the other hand, have variable magnification, this means if you're looking at different print sizes you can take the magnification up or down accordingly. Electronic Magnifiers will give much higher levels of magnification and as a general rule the larger the screen, the higher level of magnification can be achieved (our larger magnifiers can up to 140x). Almost all electronic magnifiers are auto-focus now, this is certainly a lot more Ergonomic than with conventional Optical Magnifiers.

Electronic Magnifiers give additional features over optical magnifiers, the most common being false colours, freeze/save the image and writing functionality. The false colours are particularly important. False colours mean that words can be changed from colour to white on black or black on white. These colours are person-specific and on most electronic magnifiers you can change these false colours to suit your eye condition.

Other contributing factors to consider when comparing Optical Magnifiers to Electronic Magnifiers is cost and size. Optical Magnifiers are cheaper and as a rule of thumb are more portable, however, Electronic Magnifiers are available in lots of different sizes, including portable Electronic Magnifiers.

Choosing the correct magnifier?

Choosing the correct magnifier is of vital importance. Optical magnifiers are normally issued by an eye-care professional. The Strength of the magnifier is determined by an Eye Chart, similar to an eye test. It is worth noting if you have a degenerative eye condition you may need to be tested regularly so the strength of magnifier can be amended.

Other factors to consider when choosing a magnifier:-

• What do you hope to achieve from the magnifier or what are you struggling to do?

• What environment is the magnifier being used?

These two simple questions should always be asked. From these two questions alone our team can advise you what products would best suit your needs.

Types of Electronic Magnifiers

Electronic Magnifiers come in lots of shapes and size. We categorise these into the following:

• Portable - Designed to be pocket/bag sized, run off rechargeable batteries, great for spot-checking, normally the natural progression from an Optical Magnifier. The preferred model is the Ruby XL.

• Transportable - Perfect for moving around the house, school or work. Offers larger levels of magnification over portable magnifiers, great for reading more substantial content. The NEW Compact 10 HD has been a huge success.

• Desktop - Desktop magnifiers offer the largest magnification of all the magnifiers we produce. Desktop Magnifiers normally have an X/Y table, a platform that moves left to right and up and down, this makes the navigation of the document easy. Some Desktop Magnifiers include Text to Speech (OCR) which means it will magnify and read print aloud to you. Some of the desktop models offer distance viewing and self-viewing, great for grooming and applying make up. The two preferred models are the Acrobat Ultra and Clearview C.

• Wearable - Wearable Electronic Magnifiers are head-mounted, similar to virtual reality headsets. Wearable magnifiers offer hands-free use, these are popular with musicians who require both hands to play the instrument but need to read the music, other uses include hobbies and watching the TV. Wearables sit close to the eye so be sure to talk to us before choosing the correct one. Our most versatile wearable is the Compact 6 HD.

• Text-to-Speech - Text to speech machines read printed text to you. They are often used by legally blind people however they are used more widely as it’s normally quicker to have the text being read to you rather than magnifying it and reading it yourself. Various models are available, the OrCam Read is a portable reader and our most popular option for the home is the SmartReader.