The key parameters in high-content imaging - speed, sensitivity (or intensity) and resolution - cannot be optimized independently as altering one of them influences the others. For example, increasing the resolution by choosing a higher magnification requires imaging of more fields to maintain the same cell number – at the expense of speed; or increasing the fluorescence intensity can be achieved by increasing the exposure time – again at the expense of speed. Nevertheless, there is a way to overcome some of these obstacles and here, in this Technical Note, we explain why the choice of the objective lens is critical.