A planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based camera system capable of producing digital images with reduced levels of speckle-pattern noise. The PLIIM based camera system comprises a planar laser illumination array (PLIA) including a plurality of laser diodes for producing and projecting a planar laser illumination beam (PLIB), so as to illuminate an object as it is moving past said PLIIM based camera system. An image formation and detection (IFD) module is provided having a image detection array and imaging forming optics for providing said image detection array with a field of view (FOV). The PLIB and FOV are arranged in a coplanar relationship along the working range of the camera system so that the PLIB illuminates primarily within the FOV of the IFD module. A speckle-pattern noise reduction subsystem is integrated with the PLIA, for reducing the temporal-coherence of the PLIB before the PLIB illuminates a target object.