Cavitation bubbles are produced in water by focused laser light with pulse durations in the 100-fs and 10-ns range. Special attention is paid to the shock waves during breakdown and first collapse of the bubble or bubbles generated. The special focusing properties of femtosecond pulses lead to cylindrical shock waves from elongated breakdown channels and to more complicated shock wave patterns in the pre-breakdown region. Bubble collapse leads to spherical outgoing shock waves in the case of spherical shrinking of the bubble and to a sequence of distinct shock waves in the case of aspherical shrinking. The shock waves are made visible with shadowgraph techniques, including femtosecond pulses for illumination, and are measured with a fiberoptic hydrophone. [Work supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.]