Coping with loss of vision

Coping with one eye

Principles of Magnification

Magnifiers etc

What is the retina?

Thinking of a camera can help you understand macular or retinal damage. A camera lens focuses a picture onto a film inside the camera. In our eyes the same thing happens, but the film is replaced by the retina.
The retina that 'makes' the pictures of the world that we see, converting the light into electrical signals that are then sent on to the brain.

See PATIENT INFORMATION for more details.

The lens of the camera in yellow, the film in blue.

The lens of the eye in yellow, the retina in blue

The eye as a camera. Above, the image of the house focusing on the retina.

The Macula

The macula is the most sensitive part of the retina. It makes out the fine details of the things we look at, peoples' faces, bus numbers, reading and writing, and the letters on an optometrists chart.
If the macula is damaged all these things we see in fine detail are misty. The picture is still there but we cannot make out any of the detail.

A healthy retina will produce a clear image, like a normal film in a camera.

But in macular damage the image will not be clear.

For example if the film was scratched in the middle, the 'scratch' would show up in the middle of the photograph like a black mark or blot of ink. This is similar to damage caused by macular disease such as diabetic maculopathy.

Sadly, the damage cannot be repaired. See MACULOPATHY.
Because the detail in pictures is lost by damge to the macula, no amount of change to your glasses can restore this detail.

So people with diabetic maculopathy find it difficult to read, write and or recognise faces.

The macula is the central area of the retina, shown by the `black ring, in this picture.

Everything will appear blurred of the macular area of retina is damaged.