Truong, T. V. et al. Commun. Biol. 3, 74 (2020).

Light-field fluorescence microscopy (LFM) has benefits for fast volumetric imaging because it is able to capture an extended sample volume in a single image. LFM uses a microlens array at the sample plane to capture the light field coming from a sample on a 2D camera. The 3D distribution of fluorescent emitters within the sample can then be determined through computational reconstruction of the 2D image. Despite the benefits, LFM can suffer from limited contrast, in part because it uses wide-field illumination, which excites regions outside the volume of interest. Truong et al. have developed selective volume illumination microscopy (SVIM), which overcomes this limitation by using light sheet illumination. The authors showcase the benefits of SVIM, which include fast, high-contrast, single-cell-resolution imaging, by imaging challenging biological samples, including bacteria flowing in seawater as they colonize a squid, the beating heart of larval zebrafish, and neural activity in larval zebrafish.