I’m reviewing this excellent pocket-sized camera for just one reason: it’s ideal if you want something small, effective and reliable in your bag or pocket while you are mainly getting on with the rest of your life, such as enjoying nature. I take mine with me whenever I go out. It’s no trouble to carry, and its powerful zoom lens, anti-shake, high quality and simple but controllable operation make it extremely useful for everything from landscapes to close-ups of insects.

The camera starts up quickly – very helpful if you are trying to get a shot of an animal before it vanishes, and focuses quickly and reliably in a wide range of situations. It comes with automatic reduction of camera shake, specially helpful if you are using the zoom. I’d still recommend you try to find something to rest the camera on – I use a screw-on monopod as it’s lighter and quicker to use than a tripod, and is helpful for everything from photographing flowers and insects to steadying the camera for a long shot.

The good-sized sensor is much larger than that on earlier models, and it shows: the camera collects much more light, giving sharper and less grainy images, specially in poor lighting conditions.

The screen is much larger, too, and in general it works well, even in bright sunlight; if you are using full zoom with the sun shining on the screen, you need to turn up the brightness using the ‘Monitor’ menu. The only other setting I touched was to make ‘Closeup’ the chosen ‘Scene’, so as soon as I turn the dial to Scene, I’m ready to shoot closeups: very convenient.

With smartphones able to do everything from the shopping to baking bread, you may be wondering why you need a camera at all. There are several good answers to this (tick all that apply):

• if you’re going to drop it in the mud/pond etc, better have something cheaper than a high-end smartphone
• for steady handheld shots, this is far better
• since it has a flat base, and takes a tripod or monopod, you can get much steadier shots
• the optical zoom (4.5 to 81 mm, equivalent to an extraordinary 25-450 mm range on a traditional SLR camera) and the large lens (F3.4 at its best) are far better than anything a phone’s camera lens can manage (and there’s digital zoom and crop too)
• the video is HD if you need it.

But the simple truth is that this is a very handy small camera that takes just the shots you need to record your experiences with wildlife and scenery large and small. It isn’t the same as having a high-end SLR with a suitcase full of heavy expensive lenses to hand, but it is much more portable, a great deal cheaper, and it takes great pictures.

Buy it from Amazon.com
Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

You’ll need to get an SDHC memory card for it, and a carry case too.  A 16 Gigabyte card will store well over 3000 images. It comes with a USB cable and a Mains-to-USB plug so you can charge the battery without removing it from the camera. If you want to charge it faster (not very necessary, probably) or to charge a spare battery then you’ll need a separate charger too.

Nikon has newer / more expensive cameras. These will be excellent too; I chose this model for its current low price (I don’t mind if something happens to it, so I feel relaxed about carrying it everywhere) and high quality.