An optoelectronic sensor (10) for the measurement of distances or distance changes in accordance with the light transit time principle is provided having a light transmitter (12) for the transmission of a light signal and having a light receiver (16) for the reception of the remitted or reflected light signal, wherein an evaluation unit (18) is provided which is made to trigger the transmission of a light signal at a transmission time in a respective measurement period (100) and to sample the received light signal as well as to accumulate a histogram (110) of such received light signals over a plurality of measurement periods (100) and to determine the reception time from the histogram (110) and the light transient time from this. In this respect, a unit (40) for the fine setting of a transmission time is provided which is made to shift the respective transmission time within the measurement periods (100) by an offset, with the offsets forming a distribution (56, 60) whose center of mass forms a desired transmission time.