This lecture covers the principles and applications of confocal microscopy, focusing on the elimination of out-of-focus fluorescence to yield superior images. It explains the confocal method's ability to address questions about fluorescent specimens, the use of pinholes for axial filtering, and the components of a laser scanning confocal microscopy system. The lecture also discusses detectors for confocal microscopy, the scan microscope head, and the advantages of confocal imaging over wide-field microscopy.