Point and Shoot question

I have the Canon 40D and 50D and assorted lenses. I'm looking for a good point and shoot with viewfinder for fast,casual shooting without lugging around the big cameras and lenses. What are my best choices? NOTE: I have to have a viewfinder, too used to that to go to just looking at the screen.
Karen

How small does it have to be? The Olympus E-P1 + pancake lens is a great, light little combination.. nowhere near as small as an ultracompact P&S but still small enough to fit in a pocket. Has an optional optical viewfinder. Or there's the E-P2 or the Panasonic GF1..

The Canon point and shoot models have a few that have viewfinders, but not like your DSLRs have. The G11 has an optical viewfinder, but it does not display any shooting information, and only displays about 77% of the actual image. The larger SX20 has an electronic viewfinder, and may be closer to what you are looking for. Neither camera will be as fast in response as your DSLR, but none really are in the P&S category. There is also the small SD780 that also has a small optical viewfinder, but these types tend to be used as a last resort for pointing at the target.

You would have to move to something like the m43 cameras like the Olympus or Panasonic models to have an add-on external electronic viewfinder that might appeal to you.

Dennis

Thanks so much for the feedback. There are so many models out there it is confusing.
Karen

G11 is the last camera really thats a P&S with a respectable viewfinder... personally I just ended up getting the s90 because of its pocket-ability, and where as I do miss the viewfinder, i love the camera, and would really recommend it highly

The viewfinder in the G series is a fixed focal length too so it's not just that it covers 77%, that percentage changes as you change the zoom on the lens. I tried to use the viewfinder on my G10 a few times but always ended up coming back to the back screen for composition and information