An ophthalmic laser system includes a laser source, to generate a pulsed laser beam, an XY scanner, to receive the pulsed laser beam, and to output an XY-scanning beam, scanned in two directions essentially transverse to an optical axis, and a multi-functional Z scanner, to receive the XY-scanning beam, to output an XYZ-scanning beam, having a numerical aperture NA and a focal spot in a target region, and to modify the numerical aperture NA essentially independently from scanning a Z focal depth of the focal spot along the optical axis.