Using the c# driver for MongoDB I can easily construct a query against which I can then add SetSkip() and SetLimit() parameters to constrict the result set to a certain size.
You can do it like this:
var server = MongoServer.Create("mongodb://localhost:27020");
var database = server.GetDatabase("someDb");
var collection = database.GetCollection<Type>("item");
var cursor = collection.Find(Query.EQ("FieldToMatch" : "ValueToMatch"));
var count = cursor.Count();
Some notes:
I'm using the Driver 2.3.0 and now is also possible to do that like this:
...
IMongoCollection<entity> Collection = db.GetCollection<entity>(CollectionName);
var yourFilter = Builders<entity>.Filter.Where(o => o.prop == value);
long countResut = Collection.Count(yourFilter);