A 50‐&mgr; glass filament from a fiber‐optics bundle, bent at 90° near the lower end and fastened to an adjustable support, proves to be a better light pickup than the usual pinhole aperture for high‐resolution scanning of a laser beam. Scans of a 50‐mW laser beam were used to develop a spatial filter combined with a short‐focus collimating lens which yields a uniform, Gaussian‐shaped beam with no increase in size.