Bert Hyman writes:
While talking with my wife about selection criteria for a proposed
new camera, I was surprised to hear that her main problem with our
aging Canon A60 was the long delay in releasing the shutter.

What's surprising about that? Shutter lag is one of the most annoying
misfeatures of small digicams.

In consumer-grade, non-SLR cameras in the 5+ megapixel range, does
any one maker's camera have an advantage in quick response time? Or,
has this problem been eliminated generally in current camera models?
Any brands to stay away from?

The newer Canons are a bit more responsive than the older ones, but if
you want to really fix the problem, get a DSLR.

There are some Ricoh non-DSLR's that also fix it, but they're hard to
find in the US.