Comparison of stereo optic disc photographs from the Nidek 3-Dx and Zeiss retinal cameras

Objective: To compare the Zeiss retinal camera with the Nidek 3-Dx camera for photographic quality and stereo separation. Subjects: Eleven subjects (22 eyes) were selected from patients referred for optic disc photography. Methods: The subjects were photographed using the Nidek 3-Dx camera for simultaneous stereo photographs, and the 30° field and 15° field settings on the Zeiss retinal camera for sequential stereo photographs. Four ophthalmologists qualitatively scored the photographs on a five-point scale for stereo separation and photographic resolution and sharpness. The results from the four observers were averaged and the Friedman two-way analysis of variance used to analyse the results. Conclusions: It was found that the stereo separation is significantly better using the Nidek camera when compared with both the 30° and 15° Zeiss results. There was no significant difference in photographic quality between the Nidek and Zeiss 30° photographs. It was also found that the Zeiss 30° images had a significantly higher quality than the Zeiss 15°, which contradicted previous results.