Constant-height scanning is demonstrated to improve near-field microscopy by eliminating artifacts connected with topography scanning, hence, to image the inherent electromagnetic contrast. Microwaves are chosen for this study because the long wavelength eliminates coherence artifacts, owing to a scale separation of wave and image frequencies. Measured amplitude and phase images of conductive films are quantitatively analyzed by considering the longitudinal electric near field. The observed spatial resolution of 200 nm equals the probing tip size and proves that the skin depth &dgr; of the tip material (here, 1600 nm) presents no resolution limit to scanning optical microscopy. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.