The eyes!

So...

For several years I've been fidgeting with ways to see what I am painting better... I progressed through reading glasses to headsets, to reading glasses and head sets... and finally to reading glasses + headsets + a magnifier on an arm.

Basically this steampunk-esque contraption allows me to see better but the glare that builds up with the addition of each lens and the loss of depth perception still made it difficult to exploit the magnification.... Oh yeah! I can see that big fat brush smear that I could not tell how far the brush was from the mini.... grrr...

So I began memorizing distance from preset hand positions... this helped but has obvious time and flexibility limitations....

GO SEE YOUR EYE DOCTOR!

Seriously...

My wife scheduled me for a routine eye exam and, when I arrived I mentioned my hobby/passion for miniature painting and described my difficulties.... at first we discussed options like loupes and professional grade jewelers/dental headset magnifiers... then the doc asked me at what distance did I work... and tried some lenses.... and ended up writing me a prescription for painting glasses....

DUH!

These are totally awesome and, since they are adjusted to each individual eye I got my depth perception back! ... turns out my constellation of lenses was attempting, unsuccessfully, to account for different levels of acuity in each eye.... hence the arm mounted magnifier i was using to fine tune on details.

 As a bonus... if I do need to go a more intense magnification route I can work the prescription into the frame and retain me depth perception....

If you are having trouble seeing... measure your working distance and tell the doc what you are trying to accomplish

It just never occurred to me to ask about task specific glasses as opposed to the general purpose prescription you will get if you don"t talk about what you want to achieve.