Since I'm about to begin fellowship in a subspecialty that kind of sort of requires the use of surgical loupes, I looked up the prices of various vendors and found that the trend these days is to go with the Through the lens kind of loupe.

But despite their benefits (lighter weight, more ergonomic, etc) I find the idea of through the lens loupes to be kind of.. not my vibe. I worry about the case where what if the prescription lenses were scratched or worn down, or if my refractive error somehow changed (unlikely in a reasonable time frame I know, but who knows).

So I tried taking a look at resellers of more traditional flip up loupes, and found a Orascoptic branded ones from the 80s for sale on eBay. Second hand (or third or fourth, who knows) isn't an issue for me as long as the optics work and are comfortable, and I'd trust that the optics technology hasn't that much changed from that time till now.

Bought one, added prescription lenses, and after some fiddling with the PD slider to match my known PD, setting the top of the telescopes to match my lower lid margin (similar to bifocals prescription), and then looking at a central object at the focal plane and adjusting the centration of the image (yaw tilt axis of the individual telescopes), I finally got it to a point where I can use them comfortably enough that I can wear the pair in daily life, heck I'm even typing this on my smartphone while looking through this loupe.

Will need to see if it holds up in more intense situations like surgeries. But so far so good.