A plurality of solid-state imagers is mounted in a reader, such as a bioptical, dual window, point-of-transaction workstation, for capturing illumination light returning along different fields of view from indicia. A controller controllably activates the imagers over respective exposure time periods during which the indicia are illuminated to produce electrical signals indicative of the indicia being read, processes the electrical signals to read the indicia, and controls the exposure time periods to be nonconcurrent to prevent interference among the imagers.