Ok...latest thoughts as I home in on what I need and get serious about how much I want to spend.

Yesterday I had my heart set on a Nikon 5700, today I read Steves review for the Olympus C5060 on steves-digicams.com which made me think again. Below are some thoughts on each from what I've readââ'¬Â¦

Nikonââ'¬Â¦seems to have as many negative comments as positiveââ'¬Â¦the owners opinions on dpreview seem to be full of gripes although there is plenty of praise generally for the camera. Its highly recommended both by Steve and Phil Askey over on dpreview yet there seem to be plenty of negative comments around. Is this because people expect a lot from Nikon and they are under more scrutiny? The zoom is the main benefit on this camera I can see compared with the Oly.

Olympusââ'¬Â¦.this seems like a nice camera that has plenty of positive owners reviews on dpreview and a good review by Steve. It's a shame the zoom is only 4x but everything else seems very positiveââ'¬Â¦apart from the mechanical defects which have affected some irate owners.

So which should I go for?!

I'm looking for something that takes lovely pictures that can be blown up to A4. Something with good macro capabilities (this is the reason I shelved the Fuji S7000 as the sample pics of super macro on dpreview are pretty distorted)

Something that has plenty options to play with as I learn.

Something that is nice to use as this will be my first proper camera although I intend to use it for more than just p+s.

I've posted this on steves and dpreview forums although I'm bearing in mind what you guys have said about dpreviews forums. I fear some Nikon zealots are going to hijack my thread.