I steered away from the C-50 after seeing some sample shots -- purple fringing has always been a problem with Olympus cameras, and it's particularly a problem on this camera. It's not received great write-ups in the UK press.

That said, it's one of the smallest 5MP cameras, if that's important to you.

I opted for the Olympus Dimage 7i for it's high quality lense and manual controls, but it may be slightly large for you. The Nikon 5700 is a fine camera that is both compact and full of features, but will be substantially more expensive than the Olympus.

Check out the reviews on dpreview and also on Steve's digicams. Both sites offer good, in-depth reviews far more detailed than anything I've seen in print magazines.

Good luck with your selection. And remember -- who's behind the camera is even more important than which camera you select.