A correlation confocal microscope uses correlated photon pairs to improve resolution. It employs a source of a light beam converging to a point location on a sample, and an objective that gathers light from the point location and generates an image beam. A modulator applies a spatial pattern of modulation to the source light beam to define spatially correlated photons whose spatial correlations are preserved in modulated light gathered from the sample. A filter applies a modulation-selective filter function to the image light beam to generate a filtered light beam of like-modulated photons. A coincidence detector detects temporally coincident photon pairs in the filtered light beam, generating a pulse output that indicates the magnitude of a light-detectable property (such as transmissivity or reflectivity) of the sample at the point location. The modulator may apply phase modulation and the filter may be a phase-sensitive component such as an interferometer.