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!"
Engadget....you are on the WORLD WIDE web. This "offer" is valid only to US residents. Stating so in your post would save a lot of non Americans a lot of time. People from around the world read this blog and there is a rather large world outside the borders of the US...not that many Americans care to notice.
And as for Microsoft....the upgrade from Home Premium to Professional is a whopping $130 CDN in Canada. The regular US upgrade price of $89 would be a steal for Canadians. If you haven't noticed, the US Dollar and Canadian dollar have been near par for some time now. Its stinking software downloaded over the web....borders should really not matter all that much. Time to cut Canadians a break.
End of rant.