Well, at last I've made a decision that I'm peaceful about. I'm getting the Canon G7. I've read quite a bit about it and found a lot of personal reviews on B&H website which were excellent. I was pleasantly surprised to see that quite a few pros purchased this camera for the same reason - to complement their DSLR - and some of them stated their reasons were due to the weight. Well, at least it made me feel better.

I'm picking up the G7 this morning at B&H. I'm going to sell my 24-105 IS lens if I can pull myself away from it. For now I'll keep the 17-40 due to the wide angle and clarity of this lens. I also will keep the 50mm/f1.4 to use as my main camera set up (with the XTi).

Thanks for all the advice and input.

Liz