1. A system for determining a time response to a monotonically changing characteristic of a sample, comprising: a camera that obtains at least two spatially different images of the sample over time, each image having a plurality of pixels, each pixel having an amplitude corresponding to the monotonically changing characteristic of the sample; a controller coupled to the camera for moving the camera spatially to obtain said at least two spatially different images of the sample; and a processor that receives the plurality of images and generates a data array for each of the spatially different images, the data array corresponding to a logarithm of the pixel amplitude at a given time and a logarithm of the given time, wherein the processor fits a polynomial representing a reconstructed function to at least a portion of the data array, the polynomial having at least one polynomial coefficient, such that each pixel in said spatially different images is represented by a coefficient array containing said at least one polynomial coefficient, and wherein the processor generates from coefficient arrays at least two reconstructed images corresponding to said at least two spatially different images and forms an image mosaic from the reconstructed images.