Abstract: For remote aerial or satellite reconnaissance of the earth using an optoetronic camera that takes area photographs and has one or more line scanners associated with it, or a combination of such cameras, a series of overlapping individual pictures is taken at regular intervals. In the overlapping zone of adjacent individual area pictures, the positions of corresponding pixels or picture zones, so-called partial images, are then selected for mutual orientation of the photographing positions of the area camera or cameras. Finally, the orientation data from the optoelectronic area camera or cameras are transmitted to the line scanner by fixed orientation or measurement of the relative orientation.