There are three major types of funduscopy:

• Direct funduscopy. It allows the examiner to see the eye magnified up to 15 times and produces an upright (unreversed) image. Physicians and nurse practitioners can perform direct funduscopy. Here, the examiner is “looking at the trees, not the forest.”
  
  
• Indirect funduscopy. Allows the physician to examine the eye magnified two to five times. It produces an inverted and reversed image. This gives a more complete view of the retina, and takes more specialized skill than a direct funduscopy. As a result, it is usually performed by an ophthalmologist. Indirect funduscopy affords the physician a wide view of the fundus to identify lesions that can be seen in greater detail later. Here, the ophthalmologist is “looking at the forest, not the trees.”

  

• Slit-lamp funduscopy. Provides a magnified, three-dimensional view of the parts of the eye. Though the test is often used to look at the front part of the eye, special lenses can also be placed on the cornea to view deeper structures of the eye such as the fundus. Slit-lamp funduscopy provides a clearer view of the optic nerve (nerve that transmits signals from the eye to the brain) and the center of the fundus than indirect funduscopy. It is performed by an ophthalmologist or optometrist, often as part of a dilated pupil examination.