Me too, I use an old Lumix TZ5, just because it's small and easily portable on a long walk (the main consideration for me to be honest) and it has a good zoom. It is a bit limited and is getting pretty worn, so am thinking of saving for an upgrade. I'm fully aware of the limitations of my pictures anyway!

I thought about buying a bridge but the portability issue puts me off, but I would like something with a few more manual aspects than the TZ5. I've never used a tripod either, due to trying to reduce weight to cart about.

The main limitation with a compact vs DSLR is always going to be the small sensor size - I notice that the newer Lumix TZ ones have significantly upped the mega-pixels (about 18 now, from the 10 of mine!) but the sensor size is still small so not sure how the extra MPs will work in practice, as the pixels are presumably smaller to allow the extra number without an increased sensor size to match?