Frequency domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT), based on an all-reflective high-speed InGaAs spectrometer, operating in the 1050 nm wavelength region for retinal diagnostics, enables high-speed, volumetric imaging of retinal pathologies with greater penetration into choroidal tissue is compared to conventional 800 nm three-dimensional (3-D) ophthalmic FD-OCT systems. Furthermore, the lower scattering at this wavelength significantly improves imaging performance in cataract patients, thereby widening the clinical applicability of ophthalmic OCT. The clinical performance of two spectrometer-based ophthalmic 3-D OCT systems compared in respect to their clinical performance, one operating at 800 nm with 150 nm bandwidth (approximately 3 microm effective axial resolution) and the other at 1050 nm with 70 nm bandwidth (approximately 7 microm effective axial resolution). Results achieved with 3-D OCT at 1050 nm reveal, for the first time, decisive improvements in image quality for patients with retinal pathologies and clinically significant cataract.