A method of capturing digital images of a specimen undergoing a chemical reaction comprising: storing in a memory of the digital imaging device emission profile data of multiple different assays including information relating to when an emission for a particular assay will begin rapidly declining; capturing, by an imaging device, a series of short exposures of light emissions from the specimen over a period of time during the reaction, wherein the reaction occurs during the performance of the particular assay, wherein the short exposures encompass increasing portions of the period of time, and wherein the accumulated brightness of the captured images of the specimen increases over the period of time as the number of exposures increases, wherein the series of short exposures is captured using an array of pixels of an image sensor of a digital imaging device configured to perform sequential non-destructive read operations to read out a set of signals representing non-destructive read images of the specimen from the array of pixels of the image sensor, and wherein reading out the final set of signals is delayed until at or near the end of the chemical reaction to reduce read noise in the set of non-destructive read images; monitoring, by the imaging device, the signals representing the non-destructive read images read out from the image sensor; and discontinuing capturing images of the specimen, by the imaging device, upon receiving a command, wherein the command is generated automatically, using the emission profile data to improve auto-exposure of the particular specimen, or is based on input from a user of the digital imaging device, querying the user of the digital imaging device when an emission of a specimen is at or near its peak based on the emission profile data to ask the user whether to discontinue capturing images of the specimen. storing in a memory of the digital imaging device emission profile data of multiple different assays including information relating to when an emission for a particular assay will begin rapidly declining; capturing, by an imaging device, a series of short exposures of light emissions from the specimen over a period of time during the reaction, wherein the reaction occurs during the performance of the particular assay, wherein the short exposures encompass increasing portions of the period of time, and wherein the accumulated brightness of the captured images of the specimen increases over the period of time as the number of exposures increases, wherein the series of short exposures is captured using an array of pixels of an image sensor of a digital imaging device configured to perform sequential non-destructive read operations to read out a set of signals representing non-destructive read images of the specimen from the array of pixels of the image sensor, and wherein reading out the final set of signals is delayed until at or near the end of the chemical reaction to reduce read noise in the set of non-destructive read images; monitoring, by the imaging device, the signals representing the non-destructive read images read out from the image sensor; and discontinuing capturing images of the specimen, by the imaging device, upon receiving a command, wherein the command is generated automatically, using the emission profile data to improve auto-exposure of the particular specimen, or is based on input from a user of the digital imaging device, querying the user of the digital imaging device when an emission of a specimen is at or near its peak based on the emission profile data to ask the user whether to discontinue capturing images of the specimen.