Apparatus is disclosed for acquiring video signals with high resolution in the optical path of a photographic printing device for point-by-point color video signal generation by means of a video image sensor which receives the original negative image. For generation of the video signals, a sufficiently high-resolution black and white video sensor (27) is used. The three color separations are delivered separately to the video sensor by means of a plurality of color filters (4, 5, 6) which are present for printer illumination control and are brought consecutively into their active setting.