I just purchased a Olympus C-5000 a couple of weeks ago. I would
probably classify myself as "advanced amateur," having done
photography (film) for 50+ years on all sorts of stuff. The C-5000 has
a lens cap, but allows you to do fully automated, or over ride with
whatever degree of manual control you wish, so you can run it like a
"real" camera. I haven't tried it in low light conditions, but there
is a "noise reduction" mode -- increased shutter speed -- that might
address the issue -- I bet it "averages" the value of a pixel.

I got mine from B&H photo in NYC. I do need an extra memory card, and
a spare battery, as I'm taking a trip to Europe shortly.