no lcd, no problem

Hello all,
I am new to the forum and had a question.
I am looking for a small, light digital camera (point and shoot) with a viewfinder, good quality, flash, video mode and no LCD. Does this exist? All of the cameras I have seen that don't have an LCD are really cheap (keychain quality).

requirements in order of importance:
0) (relatively) good quality
1) point & shoot
2) no LCD
3) optical view finder
4) flash
5) video mode
6) a little bit of optical zoom


Thanks in Advance!
Shay
http://pullharder.org

Yes, apart from the no LCD.
From the Canon G9 (and new G10) downwards there are several models that have a viewfinder as well as the LCD on the back.
You can turn off the LCD to save battery and shoot for longer on a charge.

Sounds like the G9 might be more than you're looking for, as it has all that. Plus full manual controls, RAW mode, can work with their 580 and 480 flashes, and more than a little bit of optical zoom.

Well, you wont find an TTL* optical viewfinder in any point and shoot, of course. How do you feel about an EVF**?

Course - wombats onto something, you cant go wrong with the G9 or G10.

*Through the lens
**Electronic viewfinder

No you won't find TTL, but there are several that have optical viewfinders.

Well you can go wrong with it if you want it to have a fast frame rate for example, the G9 doesn't - even with a Sandisk Extreme III memory card.
My old Panasonic LZ-5 is about 3x faster, but half the resolution.

It all depends what you want from the camera.

I was actually thinking about something way smaller and lighter. My last camera was a canon sd40, which had a really small LCD, before that I had the canon SD410 and SD210 (I think).

The problem is that I take these cameras on pretty burly alpine adventures and the LCD tends to not hold up to the abuse. I was hoping to find some something simpler that won't break as easy but still maintain the same form factor.

I was just playing with my 5 yr old niece and she has a super cheap plastic digital camera that goes on a key chain. That got me thinking that perhaps if I got something more simple but still maintains good quality (i.e. not a kids toy) it might last me a while.


Thanks
Shay
http://pullharder.org

Canon A series still have the optical viewfinder.
And a protector over the LCD might help.
Though your real problem is low temperatures I guess.