What's the best digital camera for intermediate user, ~$500-$750, & has shortest delay when taking pictures?

The Canon DiGiC II processor is an order of magnitude faster than its predecessors, and is on Canon's newest digital cameras. If you wanted a smaller all in one camera, I would suggest the PowerShot S80 because it's one of the fastest on the market, approximate .6 seconds to take a shot, and approximately 2 seconds from power up to a shot, which is extremely fast for this class of camera. It will be at the bottom end of your price range, if not slightly lower.

Also in your price range (if you keep an eye open for a deal) is the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Like any DSLR, shots are almost instantaneous, and the camera takes less than 1/2 a second to power up. It is of course much larger than the S80 but is in a different class in terms of picture quality and size. Both can teach you a lot about photography, since they both offer powerful and comprehensive manual controls over a variety of photographic features.

Not everything Canon is great. Avoid the PowerShot S1 Pro, it has severe image quality issues. The Olympus 8080 is also in this price range and is very fast and somewhat intermediate in picture quality between the rebel xt and PowerShot S80. Hope this helps.

I am very big into Canon digital cameras! they are by far the creme dela creme'.. I would look @ http://cnet.com or Yahoo! shopping and compare models.

Take a look at http://www.dontbuyjunk.com

It's a nice way to do comparison shopping based on your specific criteria.