Ok, my wife lost our camera but her company is going to replace it
(nice of them).  As far as price, I just have to keep it realistic -
I'm thinking $300-$400, but I don't want that to be a strict number as
places have very different prices.  Why don't we use amazon as our
guide.

I just don't want to do this research myself.   Let me tell you what
features interest me

- good quality photos
- decent to good flash 
- fast turning on
- fast shot taking / loading to take the next shot.
- size

perhaps the last three are the most important.  By size, I'd like it
to be on the smaller side, without too much of a quality sacrifice. 
(Note: I don't blow up my pics...so 3-4 megapixels is sufficient, I
think).  By speed, one thing that has always annoyed me is I seem to
end up with cameras that turn on slow and take a long time to snap the
shot, and reload so you can take another picture.


If there is a google answer that is similar to this, please include
that in your answer.  If there is a website that does this, please let
me know.  There are so many digital cameras out there I could not find
a site that was all that great at cutting through the mess.

I would suggest you to buy the new Casio Exilim-S100. It is
credit-card size, 2.8x optical zoom, 3.2 mp, one of the fastest
machines (it takes about 1 second to turn on the camera and take a
picture, if the camera is on, it takes 0.01 seconds). It is everything
you ask for. I am going to buy one for my self asap. Too bad I'm not
getting paid for this!

Out of the cameras in the 3 to 4 megapixel range, the Canon SD300
(also known as the Canon Digital IXUS 40), the Canon A85, and the
Olympus C-60. The Casio
Elixims seemed to be inferior to both the Canon and Olympus models.
I'll run through some of their features and such with you then give my
suggestion for which one to purchase.

First of all the prices. Two of the cameras didn't have prices listed
on Amazon (Too Low To Display, apparently). However, various sources
gave me these rough prices: Canon A85 - $299, Olympus C-60 - $380,
Canon SD300 - $399.

Sizes: the SD300 is only just smaller than the Olympus' 3.9 x 2.2 x
1.6 in and 6.3 oz. The A85 is heaviest at 4 x 2.5 x 1.3 in and 10.6
oz. None will break your back. Both Canons are 4 megapixel cameras
while the Olympus is 6. I know you said you only were looking at 3-4
megapixels, but the price is still within your range, so I included
it.

The time that elapses from when you push the shutter button to when it
takes the picture is known as shutter lag. This often is made up of
two factors -

1. The time it takes for the camera to focus 
2. The actual "thinking" time for the camera to function. 

The SD300 is fastest, the Olympus next, with the A85 coming in third.
Cycle times, i.e., time from one shot to the next, are about 1.3
seconds for the SD300 and about 1.6 for the Olympus. Startup times are
all quite good for this class of camera.

Both the SD300 and the Olympus can handle low-light photography well.
They will focus easily in most dark conditions. The Canon A85 didn't
focus in low light as well as the other two. They all have built-in
flash units. The flash of the C-60 is offset from centre, so you'll
get red-eye happening less frequently.

Battery life: the Olympus is best, then the A85, with the SD300 only
lasting about 100 minutes.

Image quality: the SD300 and Olympus are comparable when printing at
6x4 or smaller. If you enlarge greter than this, the Olympus will be a
clear winner. The A85 is definitely in third place here.

The Canon SD300 features a 3x zoom lens, the A85 has a 3.6x zoom, and
the Olympus has a 4x zoom lens.

Bottom line: unless you find the price of the A85 very attractive, I'd
be thinking about the other two cameras. As for which one I'd
recommend, well, they're quite close overall, each coming slightly
ahead in different areas, so it's up to you to decide which points are
higher priorities for you and then select the camera that does those
things best. Good luck. 

Two very helpful sites are: www.imaging-resource.com and www.dpreview.com

If you care at all about recording video clips, the Sony Cybershot
series seems to be the best since it records sound and is only limited
in length by the memory you have available.  This was a big factor for
me.