After tens of years development, photo-electronic imaging during day and night has entered the practical stage, and playes an important role in military, aerospace, astronomy, etc. In order to realize the photo-electronic imaging in low-light-level, a new-type of imaging system was proposed by analyzing the Image-Intensifier Tubes and near-thermal imaging. In this new-type of imaging system, spatial light modulator and single element detectors could be used to modulate and detect the information of the objective, after that correlation algorithm was used to restore the objective image. In experiment, a setup based on single element detectors was built to take an image of the television tower for a long distance about 17 km range. High sensitive imaging could be realized by this new-type of imaging system. The results demonstrate that this new imaging system is a promising approach to achieve photo-electronic imaging in low-light-level, such as moonless night.correlation algorithm