The VES - Sport
The 4X VES Sport is often our first choice for bioptic drivers with moderate vision loss. VES- Sport is available in 4x and 6x powers. In Indiana, the only the 4X power VES-Sport is automatically approved for bioptic driving.
The VES- Sport was developed by Ocutech, one of the most innovative companies in the low vision field. It has a wider visual field due to its excellent Keplerian optics. The 4X VES Sport has an exceptionally wide 12.5 degrees field of view. The image quality is exceptionally bright. This extremely lightweight system weighs less than one ounce. It has a manual focus allowing a range of magnified vision enhancement from 9 inches to infinity. The telescopic portion comes in several colors. It has a two year limited warranty.
The VES Sport is a monocular system fit to the better eye and is mounted onto specially designed eyewear frames in a range of sizes. The patient’s prescription can be fabricated in the prescription.
We find it helpful to prescribe four types of slip-in filters for the Ocutech Sport so that the patient can experiment with the different filters during the training period. These include blueblocker, brown, grey and yellow. Blueblocker filters are often helpful in retinal disease, but it is important to let the patient experiment before the behind-the-wheel training. The yellow filter has been helpful to some drivers with poor contrast sensitivity for use on overcast or rainy days. If the patient needs more glare control, we can rivet two filters together.
An optional a clip-on filter can fit over the front objective lens of the telescope. The type of filter used in the clip-on is determined by the doctor. It is used when patients with severe glare problems need further glare control
Moderate amounts of farsightedness or myopia can be handled by simply focusing the system. If the patient has a very high prescription, particularly high astigmatism, the prescription can be custom fabricated into the eyepiece of the system.