A digital image capture and processing system including a housing having an imaging window, and an image formation and detection subsystem, disposed in the housing, having an area-type image detection array supporting a single snap-shot mode of image acquisition and a periodic snap-shot mode of image acquisition during object illumination and imaging operations. The system also includes an illumination subsystem, with an illumination array, for producing a field of illumination within the FOV, and illuminating the object detected in the FOV, so that the illumination reflects off the object and is transmitted back through the light transmission aperture and onto the image detection array to form the 2D digital image of the object. By virtue of its single and periodic snap-shot modes of operation, the digital image capture and processing system of the present invention has the capacity to support pass-through as well as presentation type methods of digital image capture and processing at demanding POS environments without the use of traditional video modes of image acquisition.