Inside Your Eye: a Photograph.

I am an optician in Madiosn,Wi.Our practice has had a retinal imaging device called an Optomap or Optos.It was thought of by a Scotsman 10+years ago when his son went blind in one eye due to an retinal detachment unseen by a n O.D.(Thats why you need to get an fundus exam every year boys and girls).
It has a red and green laser that scans the retina in .25 secs and gives us 200 degree view of the retina.Awesome device plus we have caught numerous patients that wouldve lost their eyesight if it were not for the Optomap.Pt's also love the fact that we can email these images to them .Sreensaver anyone?

Wowie zowie! I go to school at Rochester Institute of Technology and am majoring in Biomedical Photographic Communications and retinal maps are something my classmates do everyday as part of their training for ophthalmic photography. They can do this stuff with their eyes closed! Its a pretty routine procedure at your doctor's office. Something like that does not belong in the likes of Discover magazine.

My optometrist takes these for me every year or so for ten dollars. He runs a time-lapse series over the past seven years to show that everything is OK.

My violin teacher only became aware that he had diabetes when he could no longer read music or drive due to retinal deterioration. It is a pretty good tool.

This is just a standard retinal photograph that pretty much all optometrists have the equipment to take.

It is amazing technology but doesn't need a computer program to piece together multiple photos to get the displayed photo.

A $40K digital fundus camera is all you need.

I'm an optical assistant and take upwards of 40 of these a day.

The reason for the clarity in the shot of the 26 year old example is due to the large pupil size of a younger person.

The above photos are posible with an older person but usually only after the above mentioned drops which dilate the pupils allowing the optometrist/opthalmologist to view the retina in extreme detail.

If anyone requests i will post some retinal photos of some truly amazing eyes

I actually had this done today as part of an eye exam for a new contact prescription. You stare at a small blinking green light, and then there is a bright flash and you can't see anything for a few seconds, but it's much better than having your eyes dilated for up to six hours (the alternative). The resulting picture is amazingly detailed, and can tell the doctor quite a bit about your eye (mine even showed that I have lighter skin).