Can retinoscopy keep up in keratoconus diagnosis?

•We evaluate the diagnostic potential of retinoscopy in classifying keratoconus.•The congruence of keratoconus classification into different stages was very poor.•The discrimination keratoconus (any stage) from normal was very good.•We found similar results for the control techniques tested in our study.•Retinoscopy showed a clear clinical use in confirming the diagnosis of keratoconus.