Agreed wholeheartedly. I bought a second-hand Leitz stereo microscope many years ago and have used it for all my SMD soldering. About a year ago I bought a LED ring light and that really made a difference! Before that I just had an IKEA swan-neck LED spot, but the ring is so much brighter and has less shadows. You can pick them up from eBay for not much money at all.
Anders