Step 1: Picture the fundus of an elderly patient losing central vision: scattered pale yellow spots appear at the macula. These spots are the diagnostic marker of early age related macular degeneration.
Step 2: Those yellow spots are named drusen. They are deposits of waste lipoprotein material that pile up between the retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch membrane of the choroid, reflecting failing clearance by the ageing RPE.
Step 3: Their presence defines the dry form of the disease and their growth flags risk of conversion to the wet, neovascular form, so identifying drusen is central to the diagnosis.
Step 4: Ruling out the rest, iron and hemosiderin signify old bleeds or metallic foreign bodies producing siderosis bulbi, and lipochrome is a generic ageing pigment, none of which is the signature macular deposit. Hence the answer is drusen.
\[\boxed{\text{Drusen}}\]