To record a composite picture on a film, a projection objective inserted between a movable transparency support and a pair of large-diameter planoconvex field lenses produces an aerial image of a slide, mounted on the support, in the region of the field lenses, preferably just beyond the more rewardly positioned field lens. A varifocal objective disposed to the rear of the field lenses has a stationary front component fully illuminated by the diverging light cones from all the points of the aerial image, this varifocal objective forming part of a zoom camera enabling the magnification ratio between the slide and its image on the camera film to be varied in a range of at least 6:1.