The Swept Field Confocal is a Prairie invention that brings both high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution together into a single compact confocal scanner. The SFC design utilizes a fixed aperture mechanism. The user chooses from a range of pinhole diameters or slits widths in order to optimize the needs of a given experiment. Highest spatial resolution is obtained by using the pinhole size best suited to a given objective lens. Highest temporal resolution is achieved in either of the slit positions. Rates in excess of 2 kHz may be achieved provided a suitable CCD camera is used.