A magnetic resonance imaging method employs sub-sampled signal acquisition from a number of receiver coils such as surface coils. A full field-of-view magnetic resonance image is reconstructed on the basis of the sensitivity profiles of the receiver coils, for example on the basis of the SENSE technique. The reconstruction is carried out mathematically as an optimization, for example, requiring a minimum noise level in the magnetic resonance image. According to the invention, a priori information is also involved in the reconstruction and the a priori information is taken into account especially as a constraint in said optimization.