What kind of microscope is this? The ones I see rely on light coming up from the bottom.
I don't have much trouble with 0402 with just reading glasses on, but it's not pretty.
I have this thing for checking work and it's actually awesome for such a cheap lens and the led lighting really works well, but you can't use it while soldering. **broken link removed**
It's a Leica GZ6 on a boom arm with fiber optic lighting from above. I don't know how much it cost originally but similar brands in the Techni-Tool catalog run anywhere from 1.5K to 4K USD depending on features.
My boss could hardly tell the difference between the resistors/caps I had populated, and the ones our NASA-certified technicians had done. I was kinda proud.