Imaging methods and imagers for image capture devices. Still images are captured by gathering ambient light data using an ambient light sensor of the image capture device, selecting a frame rate for the imager corresponding to the gathered ambient light data, determining optimal image capture parameters for the imager by executing an auto exposure algorithm with a processor using the selected frame rate as an initialization parameter for the auto exposure algorithm, and capturing a still image with the imager after execution of the auto exposure algorithm using the selected frame rate.