Yeah, I picked up an inexpensive (relatively) binocular microscope about a decade or so ago at the suggestion of a coworker and that, a decent soldering iron, and liberal application of flux goes a long way to make hand soldering SMD parts doable for me.
I find 0603s pretty reasonable to work with. 0402s start getting pretty fiddly and I haven't tried smaller than that. 0805s just seem enormous once you're building boards with mostly (or entirely) SMD parts.