Good advice Tom the only downside with a lot of compacts used to be the digital viewfinder which are dire and the screen is often better to view and compose, the shades do help.

Wojteg you may find the addition of a Grip with two batteries  to the base of the 450D may help the balance you spoke of..   And you can get an adpater to go over the viewfinder eyepiece which will extend out and take your nose off the screen a bit more..  Slight magnification to the viewfinder and fairly inexpensive

Danny O'Byrne  http://www.digitalartzone.co.uk/

"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice" Eliott Erwitt