Fancii must be Italian for “Disappointing.”
Cost At the Time of Writing the Review: $17.99
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
I’m an antiques dealer by trade. Have been for the last six years. I’ve owned a fair number of loupes, and carry one in my pocket every single day for just in case moments. So, I like to think that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to these tools.
Right out of the box, I could tell how cheap this was. It’s made of lightweight plastic, and feels more like a kid’s toy than a “professional” piece of equipment, like the listing claims. It’s also bulky, uncomfortable in the hand, and the case it comes with feels like the material from a discounted jacket. Not good.
The lights on it are nice. Two ultra bright LEDs and one UV light for checking currency or uranium glass. You can also adjust the angle of the lighting a few notches, which is handy. Also, the battery life does seem to be in the medium range, but good lights on a bad magnifier is not useless.
However, when it comes to the actual function of the magnifier, it’s nothing short of garbage. You have to lay it directly on top of something on a table, like a magnifying glass. It seems to work okay when you do that, but this is a loupe. It’s meant to be portable, to be convenient. It works okay on large, flat things (newspapers, large coins, paper currency), but small coins or jewelry, especially small maker marks in curved sections of jewelry, it’s one hundred percent useless.
While there are a couple of positive points for this, at eighteen dollars, and the fact it doesn’t actually do the job it is supposed to do, I can’t in good conscience give this a high review. There are cheaper loupes that are made of metal, more versatile, and longer lasting.
I received this product discounted for purpose of review.
My Review Addiction 