Nikon Coolpix S8200 hands-on..

The travel zoom category has thrown up some of our favourite cameras of late, putting a larger zoom into a still compact body is proving a popular choice, judging by the number we see in the hands of tourists. The Coolpix S8200 gives you a 14x zoom, ensuring you get right into the action when on your holidays, squaring up against the likes of Canon’s PowerShot SX220 HS or the Panasonic Lumix TZ20.

Although the S8200 doesn’t give you a GPS, it does offer up that 25-350mm (in 35mm terms) lens, with a max aperture of F/3.3. It isn’t the fastest lens going, but it’s fairly respectable. Internally you get a backside-illuminated 16-megapixel CMOS sensor. It measures 103.7 x 59.3 x 32.7mm and weighs a slightly hefty 213g, but it feels solid in the hand. The pop-up flash is slightly odd and we found ourselves trying to push it back down again once deployed, however it puts itself away when you turn the camera off. The top-mounted control dial sits on the back edge meaning you can easily switch modes - those changes are reflected graphically on the display too so you can see what you are doing without constantly moving the camera. 

Available from 22 September, the Coolpix S8200 has a suggested retail price of £279.99. It might not have the drama of the AW100 tough camera or the features of P7100 high-end compact that we've also seen this week, but as a versatile travel compact, we're sure Nikon will shift a lot of S8200 cameras. Of course, we'll bring you a full review as soon as we can get our hands on one for longer. You’ll get Full HD video capture along with stereo sound, with the HDMI meaning hooking-up to your TV is as simple as it can be. There are also a run of fun effects that you can apply, as is common on this type of camera.