I recently bought the Pany FZ28 10Mp, 18x optical zoom. 27mm Wide Angle - 486mm telephoto.
While it has an Intelligent Auto Mode, it does have Aperture and Shutter Priority, Program and Manual Modes, so you can do DSLR like creative photos etc
They're around £230
Here's a link to some of my FZ28 photos at a recent Reading Meet shots with it:
http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=182564&highlight=reading+meet&page=6
One more thing, yes it is bigger than a point and shoot, but smaller and lighter than DSLRS, so I believe the perfect step up between the two, weight, size and picture quality wise