Help me choose a camera, please!!

[timsmithies]

I am looking for a digital camera with plenty of manual control options. Sharpness of images and accuracy of colors are essential. I did quite a bit of searching, and based on my budget, I have these options to choose from. Please let me know if you know the strong or the weak point of any of these cameras. Which one do you think would be the best?

1. Nikon coolpix 5700: I like this because it has good picture quality. 8x zoom and 5 MP are added benefits: I want at least 3/4 optical zoom and 4 MP.
2. Canon Powershot s50: I have seen pictures taken by this camera and I loved them!
3. Canon g3/g5: This option is a bit too pricey for me, but do you think it is worth sacrificing the 8X zoom and 5 Mp of the Nikon coolpix 5700 for the canon G3/ G4 when both of them cost almost the same thesedays?
4. Canon Powershot s1 IS: I checked this out at Circuit city and I loved it! The 3.2 megapixel it has is an utter disappointment, but I liked it. I don't know about picture quality of this camera, but if it were about 4 MP, this camera would probably be my best bet.

Please give me suggestions.
Thanks.

[Michael Fanelli]

1. Nikon coolpix 5700: I like this because it has good picture quality. 8x zoom and 5 MP are added benefits: I want at least 3/4 optical zoom and 4 MP.
2. Canon Powershot s50: I have seen pictures taken by this camera and I loved them!
3. Canon g3/g5: This option is a bit too pricey for me, but do you think it is worth sacrificing the 8X zoom and 5 Mp of the Nikon coolpix 5700 for the canon G3/ G4 when both of them cost almost the same thesedays?
4. Canon Powershot s1 IS: I checked this out at Circuit city and I loved it! The 3.2 megapixel it has is an utter disappointment, but I liked it. I don't know about picture quality of this camera, but if it were about 4 MP, this camera would probably be my best bet.

My personal choices would be either the Canon S50 or the Nikon 5700. The G3/G5 are excellent cameras but it sounds as if the extra reach of the 5700 would be of value to you. The image quality between the G5 and 5700 won't be noticed either way.

The Canon S1 is a very new camera and the price is probably a bit too high right now for what you get.