A confocal microscope has an illumination beam path of a light source, a detection
beam path of a detector, a scanning device, optics combining and separating the
illumination beam path and detection beam path, and an objective, in which both
an incident specimen illumination and a transmitted specimen illumination are possible.
The confocal microscope according to the present invention is characterized in
that in order to switch over from an incident specimen illumination occurring through
the objective to a transmitted specimen illumination occurring toward the objective,
beam deflection optics and optionally beam-shaping optics can be introduced on
the side of the specimen plane facing away from the objective.
