CWA... I would really like to see some images taken by your wife. The one's that make her so dead set against Canon. I'm absolutely sure that the advice given here by various people whom are saying that it's likely her technique.. is true. While most PnS cameras can be blamed for having long bouts of shutter lag.. you'll get that with most any PnS.
Some cameras have burst frame modes, and that's all well and good but usually they wind up being a bit gimmicky and you also have to be shooting as such in really good light or else the camera will either compensate with lots of grain and color noise.
I second the recommendation for picking up Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure". This is a staple for any photographer.. pro and amateur alike.
But if you could post some samples from your wife's camera, of shots she has taken, it could help us gain some insight about what she could do to improve her technique.
I do have one tip that has come in handy for my wife, and even myself when using a PnS. Get some cord or rope... and a screw that will fit into her camera's tripod thread. Attach the cord/rope to the screw and attach the screw to the camera. Now, with the rope attached, make sure it is long enough that it extends from when the camera is at her face, to her feet. On the bottom of the rope, make a loop big enough to fit one of her feet in it.
She now has a make-shift monopod! While the camera is at her face, her foot will be putting pressure on the rope causing the camera to be a lot more free from jitter. She will be able to turn her body and pan the camera while holding it steady, and I guarantee that her shots will have a lot less motion blur.
I have had my wife do this for shots near dusk/dawn, when a high ISO setting would only mess up an otherwise nice shot. It also works great for situations when flash or a tripod/monopod isn't allowed.
BTW, just want to post some test images I took the other night (for you) showing the "image quality" of my wife's cruddy little Canon A590IS. I bought this for her a couple of years back for about $200 or so. These are all hand held (I.S. engaged) and in VERY poor light. I also chose to use the camera's manual focus feature. It's not really manual focus in the sense that you use a focus ring or the lens, but rather an digital way of manipulating the focal distance in very small increments with the push of a plus or minus button. Auto focus achieves just as good focus btw.. I just wanted to mess around at this point.
1/5th of a second f2.6 ISO 800
0.5 seconds f2.6 ISO 800
1/4th of a second at f2.6 ISO 200 (which is why I didn't need to do much noise reduction)
Do note, I cheated a LITTLE BIT. I used a TINY bit of noise reduction.. but not nearly enough to get rid of any of the fine detail, as you can see looking at the lens cap's textures. Otherwise, all shot out of camera and no further processing. This is obviously because Jpg's are processed in camera so any further processing would only make them look worse.
Also note that these shutter speeds are mighty slow... and without proper hand holding technique, along with the I.S. these would have been blurred to heck.
Doug