Abstract: A laser scanner or laser profiler for scanning of an object surface by measuring of distances to surface points comprising a light pulse source, a transmission unit, a receiving unit for receiving measurement light reflected from the object surfaces and for determining the respective distance to a surface point based on the received measurement light according to the principle of time-of-flight and a fiber network with a fiber based optical coupler being designed for transforming a respective light pulse into a series of spaced sub-pulses of different energies. The sub-pulses are digitally sampled, at least one of the sub-pulses having an energy yielding an electrical signal amplitude in the non-saturated range of the receiving unit is selected, and a respective distance is determined based on deducing a time-of-flight of the at least one selected sub-pulse.