The kind of surgical magnifiying glasses. Be aware though that they are either very expensive, or very uncomfortable to wear for more than a couple seconds. The "cheap" ones are much too heavy with too little support. Tried that => trash bin.
Avoid them like the plague. But even with quality ones, they take some significant getting used to. I really recommend a stereo microscope instead, unless you have a specific use case for which a microscope isn't convenient at all.
I agree completely with this. Over 40 years I tried em all; eye loupes, opti visors, Zeiss surgical glasses, russian stereo scopes, early Chinese stereo scopes and AO,B&L, Nikon, Olympus stereo scopes.
I continue to use the AO 580 at my benches and small lathe, the B&L SZ7 for inspection work (body is too long for bench work), and the Olympus over my Schaublin 102. I have a desk mount for a AO 580 that I will use at my electronics bench; booms are required in the other applications but take up too much full time real estate. The B&L SZ 6 and below are good for bench work. Also Leica and Reichert bought out B&L and AO around the 1990s.
I am thinking of taking a focuser and mounting a PCB holder to it. Then clamp that (yet to be figured out) to my bench edge. That way I can raise and lower the work for focus and not have to change my head height.
We USED to have to use a 10X loupe for lathe work (watch your nose) because of the costs of these scopes. Now I work at at a minimum of 20X. It IS nice to be able to see what you are doing rather than guessing. Plus, the view is steady since your head is not moving the loupe.
The scopes I kept are all high resolution used by industry and research until digital imaging made them obsolete. They are bright and clear and with a .5X barlow give excellent working distance. I use the B&L 15X ultrawide eyepieces which give a very bright and contrasty image. These are so good they are sought after by amateur astronomers. The SZ 7 with these eyepieces was used by the US intelligence services for photo interpretation.
For low power work, there is a magnifier lamp with a GLASS 3x lens that does not distort on Amazon for about $90. I sent back at least 2 plastic lens lamps before I found this.
I am told the Chinese scopes are pretty good, and looking at eBay all the scopes from the 1990s now appear to be beaters. I suspect there are still some sitting in college supply closets and it may be worth asking a friend to have a look.