Light wieght digital camera with a view finder

Yes, that's a big problem w/ so many digital compacts, these days—-forego the optical viwfinder and have a big, sexy lcd that is hard to use in bright sunlight, instead.

There are many Canon digital cameras in both the subcompact and compact realm that, thank goodness, have optical viewfinders. On a long trip, you can even turn off the display and just use the finder to save battery power. The one issue is that most if not all optical finders on these smaller digicams will not show 100% of the image. Some even show as little as 80-some % of what the image shot will contain.

Anyway, check out the very small and light Canon Digital Elphs ( the SD800 or SD850 for example) or their somewhat larger but bargain A-series cameras (such as the A640 or A570is) which use AA batteries (cheaper than Li-Ion batts.).

I own the Canon A710IS. Great camera, great pics, optical viewfinder, slow flash recycle due to only using 2 AA batteries. Not as trail-friendly as the Pentax Optio WP's as its not waterproof. Check out the Photography Forum for more info on this camera.

I second the warning about the incomplete field of vision on some compact digitals' viewfinders. My canon A540s viewfinder is useless because the composition is so different from what actually makes it to the sensor, and I end up using the LCD because I can't be bothered to go through afterwards cropping everything back into shape…