I finally bought a little microscope to help out with the smd parts.
I got it mostly to identify small parts, but it appears to be quick enough that I might actually be able to solder with it. In my quick bit of testing I didn't feel any lag.
I went for something a few steps up from the least expensive, to get the bigger screen, higher resolution, better stand, better lighting, and remote control (to avoid shaky pictures!). At $140 CAD this feels like a pretty nice unit for the money actually. That was on Amazon Canada, so it arrived quickly too.
I had been thinking about a stereo microscope, but that's a few magnitudes more pricey and hard to justify at this moment.
I had a little SR-505 motion sensor nearby that I tried it out on.
The resistors in the picture are just over 2mm long. I think... my ruler is not that accurate at that scale 
These were my first pictures, so I'm still having to repeatedly adjust light intensity and angles to try to get the clearest pictures
Best,
-Nico
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