Soft x-ray microscopy provides element specific magnetic imaging with a spatial resolution down to 15 nm. At XM-1, the full-field soft x-ray microscope at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, a stroboscopic pump and probe setup has been developed to study fast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic elements with a time resolution of 70 ps, which is set by the width of the x-ray pulses from the synchrotron. Results obtained from a 2 mu m x 4 mu m x 45 nm rectangular permalloy sample exhibiting a seven domain Landau pattern reveal dynamics up to several nanoseconds after the exciting magnetic field pulse. Domain wall motion, a gyrotropic vortex motion, and a coupling between vortices in the rectangular geometry are observed. (C) 2007 American Vacuum Society.