Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"We need a digital camera that can be switched on and fire off that first shot fast. It's not a commonly tracked statistic on any review site, and nobody seems to have this information for every camera. We were hoping other readers could inform us as to what small digital cameras can fire off their first pics in under a second (ideally under half a second). It needs to be small, but mostly, just really quick in operation. Thanks!"
Big whoop. You can get all of this and more for less than half the cost in most European countries. We as a country have fallen behind, and token efforts like this aren't enough.
Jon,
Welcome to what we call free market economics. The corporations pay off the congress and get a license to rob the public.