1. Apparatus for contactless measurement of distance to the surface of an object, said apparatus comprising: (a) a light projector for producing a collimated bundle of light along a projection axis to a surface portion of the object, whereby to produce a single light spot on the surface of the object; (b) an imaging optical system on an imaging optical axis which is inclined to the projection axis, for imaging the single light spot in an image plane; (c) a position-sensitive detector at the image plane of said imaging optical system; and (d) image-analysis means connected to process output signals of said detector for determining the lateral offset of the light-spot image with respect to a predetermined reference position of the imaged spot, said image-analysis means including means for area-evaluation of the imaged spot, whereby to determine local inclination of the object surface.