It's worth it...when it's on sale.
I bought this to assist the ageing eyes focus on circuit boards and it works reasonably well.<br /><br />First off, I'm not sure the 5x magnification rating is accurate since a 1" piece of paper measures about 1 1/2" (i.e. 1.5x) without distortion when magnified through the lens. But it's large enough for me to do work comfortably.<br /><br />Quality wise the frame isn't flimsy, but it's by no means a professional grade lamp. Once the adjustment screws are properly tightened it holds it's position pretty well.<br /><br />The lamp's 3 colour and 10 brightness settings are where this unit really shines since you can adjust both to find the perfect luminosity depending on what you're magnifying. In my case circuit boards usually look best with a shade of warm white and 3-4 brightness level.<br /><br />A word of warning: This lamp cannot be plugged into a wall socket. It needs to be powered by a USB charger/adapter. At full tilt the lamp pulls more than 13.2 watts which caused my 5V 2.4A (12 watts) USB power adapter to go into over-current protection mode. Consequently, I run the unit at no more than 50% of maximum brightness to prevent the adapter from shutting down. I suspect that one would need a good quality 5V 4A (20 watts) adapter to comfortably run this at full capacity.<br /><br />The lamp didn't come with a power adapter or a table-top base but at the sale price of $ 21.00 I didn't mind those omissions. However I've seen it retail above $ 35.00. At that price point there are better alternatives for the money,
Rating: 4 stars