Good choice Jamie. I always consider that you aren't a photographer until you actually have a proper camera. Especially when the phones have the downside of people ringing you when you have that one off shot you're in the middle of taking.

My camera of choice at the moment is the Canon Powershot SX410.

It won me the Photo of the year catergory for scenic photo on here.

Also here is two examples of night shots I've done with it (freehand too)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...956612510/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...690622325/

And other examples can be found here...
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/441/31397...a5a1_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5666/3033...4a5e_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5652/3114...1242_b.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/573/31044...b0c3_b.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/539/31854...759f_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5503/3128...3dcb_b.jpg