Ophthalmoscopy on the move

I still use the same direct ophthalmoscope that I acquired during the second year of my optometry course at Aston in the late 1980s. The range of lenses and stops makes it useful for general screening and the focusing is now something I can do on automatic. I have to say that I increasingly use the direct instrument almost as a screening tool and prefer to use a slit lamp and fundus viewing lens for a good view.

This has the advantage of a binocular view, even with mid-sized pupils, but more importantly for me, I can get a better view of the fundus through the many less than transparent crystalline lenses that turn up at our clinic. I am convinced that had the direct not been the sole ophthalmoscope I was trained with at university, it would now be my second choice for fundus viewing.