My impression of the Panoptic scope is that it is very similar to the old AO monocular indirect or MIO. For the price of about 600-700 bucks I the view is better than a direct ophthalmic scope. I use a 90D on the slit lamp, and the 28D and 20D for the BIO, and hardly ever use the direct Oscope or the MIO. The W/A sales rep. did his best to get me to purchase one, but just couldnt see spending that amount on equipment that I may occasionally use, and is almost the same as my MIO. If you feel that you need one I would look on E-bay. There are many new ones going any for about 4-500bucks.