My husband and I just had a baby boy 4 months ago and now that we are trying to take TONS of pictures, it seems our current digital camera is not up to the challenge!

We currently have a Canon PowerShot A80..have had it for several years. We have always been happy with the pictures it takes and the features it has... I enjoy playing with the macro setting to take close up shots.

The one thing we are recently disappointed with is the shutter speed. It seems that with a constantly moving baby, the time between pressing the button and the camera actually taking the picture is causing us to have blurry pictures and pictures of things we were originally not trying to take. We are missing a lot of moments due to this speed.

So, keeping in mind that we wil primarily be using the camera to take pictures of a moving baby, and that shutter speed is now of the upmost importance, what suggestions do you have?

Brand is not important. Size is not that important either as the camera we have now is not the smallest one out there! Price range, we would prefer to keep it around $300 or less if possible.

Look forward to any suggestions you can provide! Thanks!

The good news is that the "shutter lag" you're describing has pretty much improved on all new cameras since your Canon came out. Personally, for what you describe, I'd probably stick to Canon - either anything with Elph in the name (like the SD850 Elph) if you're looking small at the $200 or so mark; or, better still, one of the articulated screen cameras - the latest being the A650IS. These are about $340, but earlier versions are probably still kicking around in your stated budget. Articulated - or "vari-angle" - screens are great: they let you put the camera on the floor and you can still frame the shot - great for crawling pics! Also, it means that you don't have to hold your camera between you and baby.

Do post some of your pictures here if you like :-)