In some embodiments of SCAPE imaging systems, a Powell lens is used to expand light from a light source into a sheet of illumination light. An optical system sweeps the sheet of illumination light through a sample, and forms an image at an intermediate image plane from detected return light. A camera captures images of the intermediate image plane. In some embodiments of SCAPE imaging systems, an optical system sweeps the sheet of illumination light through a sample, and forms an image at an intermediate image plane from detected return light. A camera captures images of the intermediate image plane. In the latter embodiments, the optical system is deliberately misaligned with respect to a true alignment position so that a significant portion of light that would be lost at the true alignment position will arrive at the camera.