The Oly's are great camera's. An Italian friend of mine (professional photographer) told me years ago that Olympus made lenses on a par with Nikon - but for a lot less cost. They haven't forgotten how to do that in the meantime! As everyone says - the housings are also v.good, and cheap by comparison to others. In Japan the only other digitals that you see a lot are the Sony's (P5 & P9 I think) - they are also good, but they don't have the controls that something like the c-5050/5060 does.
I'd be a bit wary of the C-8080! The U/W case is huge and I've heard a few scary stories about it - leaks etc. Also the size of the lens port is bigger than the C-5050 so you might have problems if you want to use extra lenses such as wideangle/macro. Just my opinion though - I bet otherwise they are great camera's, although they'll use up cards really quick at 8MP!!!Taucher:I am currently looking to go digital, and will be choosing betweeen the C5050 or the new C8080, and will definitely be choosing Olympus.