In a method and magnetic resonance apparatus for acquisition of image data for a magnetic resonance image, the image data are acquired with an acquisition sequence, in which a k-space matrix corresponding to the image data is scanned in segments with at least two partial acquisitions and in which each of the partial acquisition includes a navigator signal in addition to the measurement signal with which a specific k-space segment is scanned, with which navigator signal a same navigator segment of the k-space matrix is scanned. In one of the partial acquisitions a measure is determined that characterizes the breadth of the distribution of signal values of the navigator signal with regard to the k-space matrix and the partial acquisition is repeated if and when the measure lies outside of a tolerance range.