Optical second harmonic generation is proposed as a tool for non-invasive, non-destructive, real-time, in-situ imaging of oxide epitaxial film growth. The films can be monitored by surface imaging with a lateral resolution of <= 1 mu m on an area of size up to 1 cm(2). We demonstrate the potential of the proposed technique by an ex-situ analysis of thin epitaxial SrTiO3 films grown on (1 1 0) NdGaO3 single crystals. Our data show that second harmonic generation provides complementary information to established in-situ monitoring techniques such as reflection high-energy electron diffraction. We demonstrate that this technique can reveal otherwise elusive in-plane inhomogeneities of electrostatic, chemical or structural nature. The presence of such inhomogeneities is independently confirmed by scanning probe microscopy. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.