The instability of a liquid microjet was used to measure the dynamic surface tension of liquids at the surface ages of ≤1 ms using confocal microscopy. The reflected light from a laser beam at normal incidence to the jet surface is linear in the displacement of the surface near the confocal position, leading to a radial resolution of 4 nm and a dynamic range of 4 μm in the surface position, thus permitting the measurement of amplitude of oscillation at the very early stage of jet instability. For larger oscillations outside the linear region of the confocal response, the swell and neck position of the jet can be located separately and the amplitude of oscillation determined with an accuracy of 0.2 μm. The growth rate of periodically perturbed water and ethanol∕water mixture jets with a 100-μm diameter nozzle and mean velocity of 5.7 m s(-1) has been measured. The dynamic surface tension was determined from the growth rate of the instability with a linear, axisymmetric, constant property model. Synchronisation of the confocal imaging system with the perturbation applied to the jet permitted a detailed study of the temporal evolution of the neck into a ligament and eventually into a satellite drop.