A scanning, corpuscular-beam microscope which includes a beam deflection system comprising a first stage for deflecting the beam out of the optical axis of the microscope and a second stage, disposed after the first stage along the beam path, for deflecting the beam towards the optical axis of the microscope. A first objective lens having a short focal length is disposed after the second beam deflection stage along the beam path for focusing the beam on a specimen. The improvement of the invention comprises the provision of a second objective lens having a long focal length which is disposed above the first objective lens along the beam path. The second objective lens is excited for low magnification of the specimen by the microscope and redirects the deflected beam in a direction approximately parallel to the microscope axis and focuses the beam on the specimen. The first objective lens and the second stage of the deflection system are inoperative during the redirection of the beam by the second objective lens.