From 90° to 200°: How Ultra-Widefield Retinal Imaging Can Improve Your Practice

When practices think about upgrading their retinal imaging, the conversation usually starts with image quality: sharper detail, truer colour, better resolution. But there’s a second dimension that matters just as much: coverage. How much of the retina can you actually see in a single examination?

A wider field of view means fewer blind spots, less reliance on the patient’s ability to fixate in multiple directions, and a more complete picture of retinal health captured in less time. This is the idea behind Ultra-Widefield (UWF) imaging, and it’s changing what a routine fundus exam can reveal.

What Does Field of View Mean in Retinal Imaging?

Field of view refers to how much of the retina is captured in a single image, measured in degrees from the centre of the eye. A traditional fundus camera typically captures around 30–45°, centred on the area around the optic disc and macula.

Modern imaging systems have pushed that boundary significantly further:

• 90° is generally considered a standard, single shot widefield image, enough to capture the Optic disc with a useful margin around it.
• 120° extends the view further into the mid-periphery, revealing more of the retina without requiring multiple images to be manually combined.
• 200° represents true ultra-widefield coverage, extending well into the peripheral retina, territory that a standard fundus photograph simply doesn’t reach.

The wider the field of view, the more of the retinal surface is documented in one sitting, and the less the exam depends on repeated patient fixation changes.

Why Does Seeing More of the Retina Matter?

The peripheral retina isn’t just extra real estate, it’s often where early disease activity first appears. Conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, peripheral retinal tears and degenerations, and some inflammatory or vascular conditions can present with signs beyond the Optic disc long before they become apparent centrally.

A narrower field of view can mean these early or peripheral findings are simply never photographed, let alone documented for future comparison. Widening the field of view increases the likelihood that peripheral pathology is captured, recorded, and available for monitoring over time, supporting more informed clinical decisions and giving practitioners a fuller evidence base when discussing findings with patients or referring colleagues.

From 90° to 200°: What’s the Difference?

90° → 120° → 200°

Each step outward captures retinal area that the previous field of view would have missed entirely.

What Is Ultra-Widefield Retinal Imaging?

Ultra-widefield retinal imaging refers to fundus imaging technology capable of capturing a substantially larger portion of the retina than conventional photography, typically well beyond 100°, up to and including 200° views.

The iCare EIDON is a confocal scanning system, combining the strengths of scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) with those of standard fundus photography. Where traditional SLO systems typically rely on monochromatic laser light, the EIDON’s TrueColor Confocal Technology uses a white LED source spanning the full visible spectrum. This is what allows the image to reflect true, natural retinal colour rather than the false-colour composite associated with laser-based scanning, an important distinction for clinicians who rely on colour cues for diagnosis.

The iCare EIDON achieves its widefield views through a proprietary automatic mosaic process: several individual images are captured and stitched together without manual intervention, producing a single panoramic image from the central retina to the periphery.

How Can Ultra-Widefield Imaging Improve Your Practice?

Bringing UWF imaging into everyday workflow offers several practical benefits:

• More comprehensive retinal views: capturing areas of the retina that standard photography routinely misses.
• Better documentation: a single wide image provides a more complete clinical record than multiple narrower ones.
• Easier patient education: a panoramic image is often more intuitive for patients to understand than a series of close-up shots, making conversations about findings and treatment easier to have.
• More efficient examination workflows: automatic capture and mosaic function reduce the need for repeated repositioning and manual image assembly.
• Improved documentation of peripheral findings: supporting earlier identification and more confident monitoring of peripheral pathology.
• A consistent visual record for comparison over time: making it easier to track subtle changes in retinal health across repeat visits.

How Does the iCare EIDON Fit In?

The iCare EIDON Family brings ultra-widefield capability together with the image quality clinicians expect from a TrueColor Confocal System.

At its core is TrueColor Confocal Technology, which uses a white LED light source to produce detailed, naturally coloured retinal images, even through pupils as small as 2.5 mm and without the need for dilation in most cases. The system can also image through cataract, helping to maintain image quality across a broader patient population.

The EIDON Family also offers flexibility in how it’s used day to day, from fully automatic operation: auto-alignment, auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-capture and auto-mosaic, through to manual control when needed. That flexibility means minimal staff training and a faster examination for both clinician and patient.

Depending on the model chosen, the EIDON Family also supports infrared imaging, fundus autofluorescence, and fluorescein angiography (including FA video acquisition on the EIDON FA), giving practices a single platform that can grow with their imaging needs, all available at the wider field of view when the UWF Module is fitted.

What Does the Return on Investment Look Like?

Beyond the clinical case, ultra-widefield imaging can also make a strong business case. As an indicative example, one independent UK practice that added the iCare EIDON shared a straightforward illustration of how the investment can pay for itself.

The practice charges £15 for iCare EIDON retinal imaging on NHS examinations, while including it at no extra cost for private eye examinations and for patients on eye care or contact lens care plans. Around 85–90% of their NHS patients choose to have EIDON imaging.

Based on those figures, the indicative revenue projection looked like this:

• 6 patients per day × £15 = £90 additional revenue per day
• £90 per day × 6 days per week = £540 per week
• Extended across a working year, that weekly figure builds toward a meaningful annual return

On these figures, the practice expected to recover its investment in the EIDON within approximately two years, with the system continuing to generate revenue for the rest of its working life.

The exact numbers will vary by practice depending on patient volume, fee structure, how imaging is positioned within NHS, private, and care plan appointments, and the level of local competition. But the underlying principle holds: when ultra-widefield imaging is built into routine workflow rather than offered as an occasional add-on, it can become a genuine revenue stream, not just a clinical upgrade, and in areas where several practices compete for the same patients, a point of differentiation that supports both acquisition and retention.

Is Ultra-Widefield Imaging Right for Your Practice?

If you’re weighing up whether UWF imaging is worth the investment, the honest answer is: for most practices doing regular retinal work, it’s less a question of if than when. Practices that manage or monitor conditions with a peripheral component, diabetic retinopathy clinics, glaucoma and general ophthalmology services, and any practice with a strong focus on long-term retinal monitoring, are precisely the ones where a narrower field of view is most likely to be costing them findings, not just image quality.

A few questions tend to make the case clearer:

• How much of your current caseload involves conditions with peripheral retinal involvement? If the answer is “a fair amount,” every exam using a standard field of view is a exam where peripheral pathology could be going undocumented.
• Does your current workflow rely on multiple images or manual stitching to get a wide view? That’s staff time and appointment length the EIDON’s automatic mosaic removes entirely.
• How much does true colour fidelity matter to your diagnostic process? Confocal TrueColor imaging gives you images clinicians can trust and interpret with confidence.
• Will you need to scale into autofluorescence or angiography later? Choosing a platform built for that growth now avoids a second capital outlay down the line.
• How much does patient comfort and appointment time matter to your practice? A non-dilating protocol with a 2.5 mm minimum pupil size means faster, easier exams – for patients and staff alike.

Once those questions are answered, the case for the iCare EIDON tends to make itself. It’s not just an upgrade in image quality, it’s a shift from an imaging system that hopes it’s captured the relevant retina to one built to make sure it has, backed by the confocal TrueColor image quality, workflow flexibility, and imaging depth clinicians already trust. And as the ROI example above shows, that investment doesn’t just improve clinical outcomes, it can pay for itself while doing so.

For practices asking whether the additional coverage is worth it, the more useful question is what a single missed peripheral finding costs, in patient outcome, in liability, in the diagnosis that came later than it should have. Measured against that, a system built to see the whole retina, every time, is hard to argue against.

See the iCare EIDON in Action

Interested in bringing ultra-widefield retinal imaging into your practice? Our Sales Experts can talk you through the full iCare EIDON Family range, including: the EIDON, EIDON AF and EIDON FA, and arrange a demonstration so you can see the image quality and workflow for yourself.

Get in touch with the Mainline Team.