I, too, wish I could find a camera that fit all of these requirements at the same time:

- Very compact size.
- Can take pictures in low light that are not blurry because of a long exposure.
- Can take pictures in low light that are not grainy because of too-high ISO.

Unfortunately, there is not yet any such thing. Compact cameras need small image sensors which get noisy at high ISO.

If you want grain-free and blur-free images at high ISO settings, you need a bigger, more expensive DSLR camera. You crank open the aperture and manually focus on your subject. You get a great picture, albeit with a very narrow focal depth.

One thing I might settle for is a compact camera with a flash that'll reach more than five feet. But I haven't found one yet.

Here's an example of the problem I want the flash to solve: If I'm in the fifth row at an indoor musical performance, the flash only illuminates rows 4, 3, and 2, but never the performer themselves. Why on earth is that? It's like the shutter is opening too soon... the autofocus sensor should know the distance to the target in the center of my viewfinder, and thus open the shutter when the light from the flash has had a chance to reach that spot and bounce back to me. Instead, the shutter gets all done with its job before the flash has even had a chance to do any good.