Is there any reason to use retinal implants over cybereyes other than to preserve a natural vision mode or to choose which of your vision enhancements are linked to your PAN and which are DNI only?

I've always opted for the cyber eyes, its just better mechanically. I think most folks do. The option to use eye enhancements outside of the eye is just a roleplaying choice in my mind.

That low light or thermo you might lose out on when you replace those eyes are pretty easy to replace

Cyber eyes are creepy. While it is a standard part of pop culture in the future, I'm sure there will still be people who feel having your eyes ripped out is ucky.

I'd assume if you use retinal implants as opposed to full cybereyes you're also less likely to suffer from hacking or other forms of cyber disabling. You might lose the enhanced vision modes if they get shut off, but they can't blind you completely if you still have your normal eyes intact. It's also been mentioned in fluff several times that cybereyes feel odd, like seeing everything through a camera, so someone who wants the benefits but is worried about that sort of thing might also go with retinal mods.

Also the cost of fully tricked out cybereyes, both essence and nuyen does get pretty high, whereas the cost of a couple of specific implants (usually Smartlink and Image link in my case) and a set of hich spec goggles is significantly less.

Not everybody wants to have his eyes gouged out for a simple smartlink...

Mechanically of course cybereyes are superior, they effectively provide two vision enhancements plus four points of capacity for one fifth (Nuyen-wise) of what one would pay for the two enhancements as retinal mods.

Back in SR3, natural vision was allways better than cyber vision, so for dwarves with natural low-light AND infra-dead allready in their natural eyes, getting electronic magnification and light-system was perfect. Add in the Bioware Flare-Compensation and you are golden. Only thing missing is ultra-sound, but everything else works better than any machine can accomplish.
In SR4 there is no such distinction anymore.

Heh, my wife always has issues with cyber eyes too. Personally, I wouldn't think twice about replacing my eyes.

While I have had characters opt for retinal mods, there really isn't any reason to do so other than pure roleplaying or flavor. Cybereyes offer much more bang for the buck, including a display link and the ability to record what you see as part of the basic package. They aren't really significantly more expensive, and they aren't vulnerable to hacking if you run them as DNI only.

THey are actually significantly cheaper, see above

Reminds me of some art (of a dragon-type species of sentient creature) I ran across once where the artist--at least to me--was conveying an idea that public castration stations were not only acceptable but that getting the snip was fun and possibly arousing.

The only thing I could figure was that the dragons had some level of regeneration, so the bits grew back after a while and you could go do it again. It still left me scratching my head, as the artist had never stated as such and only alluded to special procedures needed to make the snip permanent (even stating it like that is more obvious than what I'd managed to pick up).

*cringe* x.x

I know! Seriously. And the fact that it was depicted as being pleasurable really weirded me out.

Well, at least now we know the history behind Dragon Ball Z...

So many discarded testicles...

Anyway, back on topic, I personally dig the retinal implants. It's a nice alternative to having your eyes hacked ala the Laughing Man in Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

Yea, Ghost in the Shell is why I'm always really paranoid about getting my eyes hacked.

I was thinking that a good compromise between mechanical advantage of cybereyes and the security advantage of not having them is to have them slaved to your datajack. That way if you are being hacked (or think that you are), you can pull the plug on the cable connecting your datajack to your comlink and sever wireless access to your cyberware.

Non-cybereye thermo - .1 Essence (Cyber), 1k
Non-cybereye low-light - .1 Essence (Cyber), 1k

Cybereye (rating 1) - .2 Essence (Cyber), 500, 4 Capacity; replaces normal vision
Cybereye thermo - [2], 1000
Cybereye low-light - [2], 1000

I generally don't bother with cat's eyes or troll's eyes - they have the same Essence costs as the cyber equivelants at much higher cost, and if I have more cyber than bio, I'm probably building a sammy, and most of my sammies use goggles or helmets.

With the relatively low cost of goggles, glasses, contacts or helmets (the latter assuming armor capacity rules in play), I generally prefer to go for accessories only in most cases (such as contacts + helmet), with mages getting thermo and/or low-light (depending on what they have naturally) without cybereyes. I might save a small amount of Essence if I have more cyber than bio; in that case I might get eyes. For example:

Dwarf mage. Starts with thermo. Biocompatability (Bioware) & Synaptic Boosters 2 for .9 Essence, low-light vision for another .08. Total Essence spent: .98; eyeware cost 1k

Human mage. Biocompatability (Bioware) & Synaptic Boosters 2 for .9 Essence, cybereyes + low-light & thermo for another .1 (.2 base, halved due to having more bio than cyber). Total essence spent: 1; eyeware cost 2.5k

Remember that to hack cyber, you have to be within 3m (signal 0) or slave them to your commlink and have it hacked. Easy enough to switch off wireless anytime not doing maintenance.

It's true that cyberware has next to no signal strength, but cybereyes have to be slaved to your comlink in order to recieve AR info via their image link. This means that their effective signal rating is much higher than their actual signal rating when it comes to being hacked. For other cyberware, such as wired reflexes, this is not such a big deal because they do not have to be connected to the matrix in order to function properly.