A novel magnetic resonance imaging method is presented for forming an image of an object from a plurality of signals acquired by an array of receiver antennae, whereas prior to imaging a sensitivity map of each of the receiver antennae is provided, at least two adjacent antennae record signals originating from the same imaging position and the image intensity is calculated from the signals measured by different antennae, wherein the number of phase encoding steps is reduced with respect to the full set thereof. Further the homogeneity of the main magnetic field is defined in a first region of full homogeneity, a second region of moderate homogeneity and a third region of full inhomogeneity, the sensitivity data of the array of receiver antennae is measured by a coarse calibration scan, whereas the full measured sensitivity data is used in the first region, for each point in the second region an estimate of the coil sensitivities is derived by a weighted addition of the measured sensitivities in the neighborhood of that point, and in the third region the sensitivity data is set zero.