Confocal imaging via spinning disk involves scanning a field with laser light from a number of pinholes arranged in a pattern on a modified Nipkow disk. Unlike laser scanning confocal microscopes (LSM) which scan one point of laser light across an entire field, a spinning disk confocal scans approximately 1,000 points of laser light across the field simultaneously resulting in much faster image production. In a traditional LSM, the detector is a photomultiplier tube which can register the signal from only one point of light (pixel) at a time and with a typical quantum efficiency of 40-50%. In an SDC the detector is a CCD camera which can register the signal from a quarter million or million pixels simultaneously with a quantum efficiency upwards of 95%. The result is that while LSMs can typically image on the order of one full frame per second, SDCs can image at over 1,000 frames per second. This significant speed difference combined with the superior sensitivity of high-end CCDs has made spinning disk confocal a must-have technology for advanced live cell imaging labs.