The development of precise instrumentation, electron microscopy, and enhanced analytical capabilities have renewed interest in understanding the mechanisms of accommodation and presbyopia. The properties of the ciliary muscle, the zonule, the lens capsule, and the crystalline lens are being reevaluated, suggesting, for example, that these components' elasticities change significantly with age and that the biochemical properties of the crystalline lens may be altered as the lens ages. The recent findings, mainly during the past decade, are contrasted with or incorporated into our classical understanding of the accommodative mechanism and presbyopia as stated originally by Helmholtz and Fincham.