Camera recommendations please!

[chillipickle]

We need to upgrade our camera, as our current one (old Canon PowerShot A520) isn't good for photographing children indoors.

We either get massive glare from the flash, or grainy/blurred pictures if we turn the flash off. And in poor light it takes so long to write to the memory card that we miss whatever moment we are trying to catch.

We saw relatives over Christmas, one of whom has a very nice digital SLR camera, and he took some truly lovely photos which made us realise how much we are missing with ours.

It's ages since we bought a camera, and I'm not sure what features I should be looking out for, or what sort of budget would get us something half decent. Can anyone give me any pointers before I start wading through thousands of camera reviews? Or recommend a make/model that works for you?

I don't want to do photography as a hobby, just want to get some nice pics of our DCs before they grow up. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Panasonic.

Yep, I've got a panasonic lumix. I've got some belting photo's. Indoors and out.

Thanks both for your replies. I've looked up Panasonic Lumix, but the Lumix brand takes in everything from small compact cameras to so-called 'compact system' with interchangeable lenses more like an SLR. Is that what you have, AlmightyCitrus?

These compact system cameras get generally good reviews, but quite a lot of reviewers mention that performance in low light isn't great.

On the other hand, they are almost certainly better than my current camera.