Jon, The main limitations of hand held readers are the small viewing area and low magnification. If you are using this type on fiche with few images per sheet, you'll be ok, but for sheets with maybe 80 or more images, they're a waste of space - you'd go blind trying to read with them! The plus is, they're light, will fit in your pocket and can be used in research centres (usually) without any hassle. If space is a limiting factor, I'd go for a portable reader such as an Informant II, Case II, Case IV etc. All of these come up on Ebay fairly frequently, usually going for anything from £20 up to around £120 or so - obviously depends upon condition and how many folks want it at the time. A plus with portables - and especially those I mentioned by make, is they will usually operate on a 12V battery pack as well as 240V. They are also dual magnification of around 24/48X mag. A big advantage with the Informant II, is that the image is projected into the lid of the reader - and removing the lid enables the image to be projected onto a wall or projector screen! Hope this helps Kind regards John Woolsey (Bridlington, UK). 1. Hand Fiche Reader (Jon Bradshaw) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:24:08 +0100 (BST) From: Jon Bradshaw <[email protected]> Subject: [SHEFF] Hand Fiche Reader Hello all Can I ask is anyone has seen or indeed bought one of the few hand held fiche readers on the market that seem to be mainly sold by American companies? I was wondering about purchasing one but would like to know if they are any good and worth the outlay, they still seem pricey for very little? I dont particularly want to buy a large reader due to cost and bulk (my wife would complain about more clutter!) and I haven't come across any being thrown out by the companies discarding these old bits of kit. I only have a few fiches that I'd like to view at home if possible. Recommendations and opinions welcomed. Regards Jon Sheffield No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.30/1127 - Release Date: 12/11/2007 21:19