http://www.amazon.com/Skull-Welding-Helmet...235&sr=1-47

I have been using one with a conventional lens. Not bad but holy crap is an auto darkening one so much better. The only draw back for me is that I have a lot of light in the shop so if I look up in darkens. Is it ever nice to do small tasks between welds and not have to flip up the mask.

Yes and make sure your auto-darken is always working, I had it happen once when I wasn't really paying attention and it didn't darken at first luckily I pulled away and wasn't looking at it for a great period of time

I got the $50 northern tool AD mask a while back ... it won't trigger from sunlight or incandescent bulbs. Haven't tested it with florescent or halogen. No on switch, no batteries to die. Best money I've even spent.