Modulation transfer function (MTF) is one of significant parameters for designing and evaluating an electro-optical imaging system. By proving the linear relation between an edge spread function and an inverse cumulative histogram of edge, an MTF measurement method based on statistical histogram is presented. Simulation and experiment including optics and detectors are designed. Physical experimental platform including an integrating sphere, target, collimator, digital camera and other devices is developed. Taking the theoretical model and design parameters of electro-optical imaging system as a reference, the validity of our measurement method is verified by the simulation and experiment. Experimental results indicate that, comparing with the existing MTF measurement method, the proposed method can overcome the phase effects which is caused by under-sampling of imaging detector. It is more robust to angle of knife edge and noisy environment, and can measure response properties beyond the sampling frequency of an electro-optical imaging system.