ECLO and the digital magnifier dream kit

The ECLO (eye clinic liaison officer) at the local ophthalmology department is a wonderful woman who's role is to help people like me with vision loss come to terms with the change in our lives both emotionally and practically.  She is really easy to talk to and she completely "gets it".  She's not bothered by tears and she's positive and full of ideas without being patronising.

Yesterday I was able to have a good chat with her and get lots of my emotions and expectations and grief of my chest.  And she was great, as ever. 

But then she introduced me to the most amazing bit of kit and I'm not sure if I love or hate her for that.

It's a digital magnifier and its truly awesome.  It is a hundred times better than the basic magnifiers, ten times better than the phone magnifiers and more portable than the mouse magnifier.  But with a price bracket to match it's brilliance.

What's to love:
- built in stand means my shakey hand isn't an issue
- built in stand means both hands are free and I might even be able to draw or colour with it
- a really stable issue
- many different magnification choices for different uses
- colour changing for both background and words which means I can use the yellow on black which is definitely best for me
- really portable in terms of size and weight and battery powered
- discreet and user friendly

What's not to love:
The price.
Almost £500, possibly a bit less on Amazon.

I guess I better get on the case for starting the process for reapplying for personal independence payment if I want one of these.

Here's the information the company provides about it:
"The handheld Smartlux Digital model 16501 offers variable magnifications of 1.7x to 12x. With its non-reflective hard coated 5 inch LCD screen, and three levels of brightness, the Smartlux Digital delivers a crisp, brilliant image. It provides full colour reproduction and a choice of contrast enhanced black-on-white, contrast enhanced white-on-black, and for the glare sensitive, yellow-on-black and black-on-yellow. Eschenbach optics ensures there is no distortion of the image. Even at high magnifications or when the display is moved, the image remains sharp. The generous depth of focus, makes Smartlux Digital ideal for use even at different distances.'