I use a 60-100X, works awesome, i mostly use the 100X setting tho. be careful, a spidermite at 100X magnification is a scary muthfukr.
some people might not have much dexterity, its not really hard to hold a scope steady
had sent this to someone earlier in a PM:
if you dont have a lighted microscope, get one. for the 10-12 bucks they are totally worth it. Look on ebay, you can also get a USB microscope for around 40$ and then you can see them and take pics right on your puter.
LOL Really? "Clear to cloudy"? And that's the "best" right? Myself I prefer to see minimum 25% amber on my crop before I'll take it. That would mean NOTHING is harvested "clear" it's just not ready yet..
I've used and owned a bunch of different optics but this USB scope stands out...it takes wicked shots! http://www.420science.com/800x-USB-Microscope I'll have to look on the other computers in the house and see if I can't find a couple of pics from previous grows.. I have a jewelers loupe that I carry around just for casual observation, it's an antique no idea of it's magnification... I mostly use it for BORG checks.
I just recently got a Viliv micro computer http://www.myviliv.com/ces/main_s5.html that I run the USB scope from, so my next harvest will be scoped on the spot and looking at buds not sugar leaves.