A time of flight (TOF) based camera system includes an illumination module that illuminates only portion of the sensor's field of view that translates to a given region of the pixels of the imaging sensor. The acquired data of the pixel region is processed and/or readout, typically. After the exposure time of the first pixel region is completed, a second pixel region is illuminated and the second pixel region is processed. This procedure can be repeated a couple of times up to a few hundred even thousand times until the entire pixel array is readout and possibly read-out a number of times. The full depth image is then reconstructed based on the results from the different pixel region acquisitions. This system can be used to reduce stray light. Compared to state-of-the-art TOF camera, the presented method and device show improvements in background light stability and a reduction in multiple reflections.