Tonight I just purchased a new camera, a Canon A540. I feel it is at my level, is much more compact than a SLR, is durable, does long exposures, and was in my price range. I will be having lots more night photographs now that I have a camera that can do more than 4 second shutter speeds. I did a series of test shots with it and I am impressed so far. I will hopefully be updating with pictures from it sometime soon.