The camera that I'm using to shoot most of my photos is the Canon PowerShot A640. I've bought this piece towards the end of 2007, and it was value for money. However, a few flaws was noticed when using it.

Firstly, because it does not have image stabiliser, thus photos always turned out blurrish in low light, indoors, and when I'm trying to capture moving images. I've tried selecting the night scene, indoors, and kids mode respectively, however, that improves the quality of the photo slightly. Secondly, it takes an awful long time to take a photo with the flash on. A lot of time I just gave up. The longest time I've ever waited was 30 seconds and nothing happened. Overall, this camera has served me well, but looking around things has moved on a lot and may be my expectation just became more demanding now.

I am seeking advice how to improve my shooting skills so that I can overcome the above problems. If I want to get myself a good camera with good video capabilities, which brand and model will you recommend and why? To furnish more about the camera I am looking for, I want something compact and light (<600g), but with much better capabilities than my A640.