A sampling system adapts the sampling rate for sampling analog signals and/or the stored number of samples to the fixed or video image content, such that a higher rate, and equivalently a larger number of samples, are acquired for an image or video segment containing higher spatial frequencies while a lower number of samples (lower sampling rate) are retained for image or video segments containing lower spatial frequencies. The Nyquist theorem may still be satisfied for each individual image segment, while information necessary for edge enhancement is retained.