Camera advice/guidance

[jks9199]

My wife's interested in a new digital camera.

She's not happy with the shutter lag on the older point and shoot I've got, or on the more basic cameras she's seen; she wants something that's relatively easy to use, but is pretty fast on taking the picture. Probably SLR...

I'm trying to be thrifty -- not cheap, if you follow the difference. I'd rather spend a little more now for something that's going to remain useful for some time, with a reasonable megapixel rating, and so on...

Any tips/guidance?

[Kacey]

I have a Sony Cybershot - very short lag time, high pixels, long battery life - I'm very happy with it. Here's a shot I took with it, to give you an idea (had to shrink it to fit the website rules):