An improved ratio between hardware/manufacturing expenditure, on the one hand, and picture quality, on the other hand, when using a multi-channel optical element is achieved in that the samples of the pixels are arranged in accordance with an imaging direction from which the optical element images objects on the respective pixel, or with a lateral imaging position in a focal-depth area that is imaged to the respective pixel by the optical element, and when the distribution, thus arranged, of samples of the pixels is interpolated at intersection points of a regular grid extending over the entire distribution of the samples. In this manner, processing is standardized across the entire picture, so that transition problems between the subareas are avoided.