This topic came up on another thread regarding the art of refraction. I was wondering if any one out there was very impressed by any autorefractors? I own two of them and have played with many others in the past. I am singularly unimpressed. I have great confidence in my retinoscopy and in my refracting skills, but it takes too much time. I have refracting techs who may benefit from an AR that at least starts them out as accurately as possible. It seems to me that excess or insufficient sphere is never the problem (it can always be adjusted). However, misleading cylinder power or axis can lead a refraction down a completely wrong path. I even demo'd a Marco epic "30 second refraction" machine and found that my 30 seconds of retinoscopy was closer every time. I would love to hear from people who have actually compared the initial results of an AR to an accurate refraction with retinoscopy, phoropter and trial framing.
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