An imaging system (600)includes a radiation source (608) that emits polychromatic radiation that traverses an examination region and a detector array (610) located opposite the radiation source, across the examination region, which includes a paralyzable photon counting detector pixel (611) that detects photons of the radiation that traverse the examination region and illuminate the detector pixel and that generates a signal indicative of each detected photon. An output photon count rate to input photon count rate map (626) includes at least one map which maps multiple input photon count rates of the detector pixel to a single output photon count rate of the detector pixel, and an input photon count rate determiner (624) identifies one input photon count rate of the multiple input photon count rates of the map as a correct input photon count rate for the detector pixel. A reconstructor that reconstructs the signal based on the identified input photon count rate.