  The performance of light-field microscopy is improved by selectively
illuminating the relevant subvolume of the specimen with a second objective
lens [1-3]. Here we advance this approach to a single-objective geometry, using
an oblique one-photon illumination path or two-photon illumination to
accomplish selective-volume excitation. The elimination of the second
orthogonally oriented objective to selectively excite the volume of interest
simplifies specimen mounting; yet, this single-objective approach still reduces
out-of-volume background, resulting in improvements in image contrast,
effective resolution, and volume reconstruction quality. We validate our new
approach through imaging live developing zebrafish, demonstrating the
technology's ability to capture imaging data from large volumes synchronously
with high contrast, while remaining compatible with standard microscope sample
mounting.
