| CPC G02B 21/0044 (2013.01) [G02B 21/0072 (2013.01); G02B 21/0076 (2013.01); G02B 21/365 (2013.01)] | 11 Claims | 

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               1. A microscope device comprising: 
            a microscope objective (18), 
                a sample stage (12) for holding a sample (16) and moving the sample in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope objective, 
                a light source (20) and an illumination pattern generator unit (22) for illuminating the sample with a line-type illumination pattern, 
                an area-detector detector (40, 44) for detecting light from the sample collected by the microscope objective, 
                a scanning unit (24) for moving the illumination pattern in a scanning direction across the field of view, wherein the scanning direction is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the illumination pattern, and 
                a control unit (42) configured to selectively operate the microscope arrangement in a normal magnification mode or in a lower magnification mode, wherein in the lower magnification mode the sample is moved in a direction antiparallel to the scanning direction while the illumination pattern is moved across the field of view by the scanning unit so as to obtain an at least unidirectionally compressed image, whereby the compression-factor is given by the ratio of the stage- and scan-speed. 
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