Not certain exactly what you are looking for. Most cameras will operate
tethered with a copy of their companies software, ie Nikon Capture.
Most cameras will capture as jpeg files which is reasonably universal.
I don't know of any off the shelf cameras that will capture say into
Photoshop with a twain driver or something like that. That generally
comes with industrial level equipment which generally costs more.
What is this replacing? If it is a custom industrial level application
and you are being asked to replace it with off the shelf stuff, you
maybe out of luck.
You can probably pick up a Nikon D1X, or a Nikon D100 with Nikon
Capture for less than $1000. Then add a lens, an autofocus prime would
be fine, a macro maybe more applicable. Then you would have to wire the
camera into what ever controler you need for operation, figure
$2000-$2500 for the job. Of course if the camera will have an operator
that eliminates the controller part. This is with  3-5 yr old
technology.

Tom