Abstract: A system for controlling beam current in an image pickup tube so as to prevent comet-tailing and blooming of highlights in the imaged scene. The video signal derived from the image pickup tube (12, 14, 16) is fed back to the beam current control circuitry (22, 24, 26) so that the beam current varies with the video signal. A non-linear amplifier (20) included in the feedback loop has low gain for normal video signals and greater gain for highlights in the video signal. This reduces normal beam current overhead and thus extends the useful life of the tube. The feedback signal provided by the amplifier (20) is a current signal in order to simplify the addition of a DC component to it. A resistor (54) and voltage source (56) perform the addition of the DC component. When multiple image pickup tubes (12, 14, 16) are used, a non-additive mixer (18) combines the plural video signals to provide the amplifier (20) with a signal representative of the video signal of greatest intensity.