Got anyone in your life who actually needs a magnifying glass to read? How about getting them audiobooks instead of an actual book next time? In case they’re also hard of hearing, this might be the next best gift: the Menas Zoom, the world’s first magnifying glasses with an actual zoom function.
Measuring 3.5 x 1.33 inches, the contraption is a little thicker than your usual magnifying reader. The extra beef is understandable, though, since it uses a double lens system to facilitate the unique zooming capability, which it manages to achieve while remaining “crystal clear” and “distortion-free.”
The Menas Zoom is an aspherical handheld magnifying glass that can bolster the size of any fine print from 2.2 times to up to 3.4 times the original. Using a top lens with a specially-curved upper meniscus, it’s able to collect light (similar to a reading stone), allowing for magnified areas that are also 30% brighter than conventional magnifying readers.
Using the zoom function is as simple as turning the top layer, which allows you to choose from five magnified settings. The zoomed section measures 1.4 inches in diameter with the top view providing the most ideal image.
The Menas Zoom, which looks like a camera lens, is available now. It’s priced like an expensive camera lens, too, at £86.95 (around $135).