The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for high-resolution deflectometric determination of the local slope and of the three-dimensional shape of an object (6). The apparatus comprises a microscopic imaging system (5, 4, 8) having a numerical aperture (sin u), a focus plane (6a) and a receiving unit (9, 10); an illuminating system (1, 3, 4, 13, 13a) having a grating generator (1) that preferably generates a sine grating (2); and a control and evaluating unit. The object (6) is located in the object space of the imaging system. The illuminating system (13, 13a), which is fashioned as an illuminating system for reflected-light objects or for transmitted-light objects, generates a series of grating images (7), which are projected as virtual images into the object space a distance d from the focus plane of the microscopic imaging system. The imaging system images onto a receiving unit, as a modulated image, the object and simultaneously the grating image reflected in the object or the transmitted grating image. The local slope components of the object surface are determined from the series of modulated images with the aid of the evaluating unit.