A590is Arrrrgh!!!!!!

This thing takes way too long to write to the SD card. Is this common for this model or is therre a setting that I can't find? Or is it the card I'm using (2 GB PNY)? Does anyone have a clue? Can't seem to get Canon to respond.

That is pretty normal for compact cameras. I expect it's the camera and not the card. The only way to know for sure would be to try another card. Slow shot-to-shot time is one of the biggest drawbacks of compact digital cameras. What is it you're trying to shoot that it's a problem? With compact cameras I think the trick is to come to terms with their limitations so that you can learn to work within them. Camera companies have tried to teach us that they're magic and can do it all. That's just not the case and unfortunately, a lot of people have very unrealistic expectations.

Well I have had an A75 for the last 5 years and it was more than twice as fast at being ready for another shot. That is until my wife dropped it...#@&$. I was just trying to take some shots of my grandson receiving boy scout badges. Other point and shoot digitals in the room were going off twice to my once. If I set the quality a little lower do you suppose that would help?

Internal damage could have occured as a result of the drop.:(

Try changing memory cards to a faster one. Also, setting a lower quality level (or resolution) will definitely speed things up - at least it does with my own camera.

Using flash slows down the shot-to-shot speed considerably, too.

The damage was to the old camera. But I will try your suggestions and I didn't take into consideration the flash affecting it. That does make sense. Could be the design of it that is the hold up. Thanks for the great tips!

Shooting with flash slows the shooting speed, not the writing speed.
My G9 is so slow on flash it finishes writing before the flash recharges - no need for a buffer :(