Method and apparatus for electro-optically recording picture information comprising scanning a picture with a head having multiple electrical optical scanning devices which can be simultaneously moved across the picture and wherein the output of such scanning devices are in a time sequential manner applied to storage devices as, for example, shift registers wherein such information can be converted into series information associated with each of the scanning devices in the head and further including a second plurality of storage devices in the form of shift registers in which information can be stored at a time when information is being read out of the first plurality of shift registers.