Best low-light digital camera?

For taking pics of small children. Was thinking of the Nikon P300. Also, I would eventually like to move on from my point-and-shoot and thinking about getting one of the EVIL cameras. I like the new Pentax Q but seems very pricey.

At low-light, use fast lens (like f1.8 or f1.4) and/or Full Frame camera (like Nikon D700).

The Pentax Q has not even been released yet, the price quoted is what they hope they will get, it will usually be cheaper when it actually goes on sale. I don't think it will be particularly good in low light from the spec I've seen, but I hope to be proved wrong.

Pentax certainly make one of the best cameras for the best low light performance with their K5, but that's a DSLR and even pricier than the Pentax Q.

None of the EVIL cameras I Own (Panasonic G1, Olympus E-P1) are very good at low light, all I've tried are noisy (very). Even my old Pentax DS beats them all for low light performance.

Anything that uses the CCD or CMOS for a viewfinder will be noisy, because it heats up with use.

You need a DSLR with a fast lens if you want good low-light performance. A budget combination would be the D3100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens (no zoom, but really good performance for the price). The absolute killer low light camera would be the Nikon D3S with a 50mm f/1.8, but that would set you back several thousand dollars.

With a tiny sensor like that on the Q you can most likely kiss low light goodbye.