At $449 the CP4200 is an attractive buy, giving a 4mp sensor, 3x Nikkor optical zoom [and a very good lens it is, too – 38~114mm film equivalent], an optical viewfinder [showing about 80 per cent of the image area] and just enough manual over-ride to cope with tricky situations.

The 4200 tends to over-expose, but exposure compensation is easily adjusted with the navigation rocker. The LCD screen is small by this year’s standards, but perfectly acceptable. The aluminium body is beautifully crafted and quite rugged. It has a slight bulge at the right hand end that gives a reassuring grip and makes the camera easier to handle than most of the point and shoot tiddlers.

The camera comes with a rechargeable battery and uses an SD memory card. There is a 12mb internal memory storage.

Why bother even noting the passing of a camera? Because the replacement, the Nikon Coolpix 4600, while no doubt offering some new features, is not as pretty as the 4200 which shares its body form with the 5900 and 7900. It is hard to resist a product that offers the very best in industrial design aesthetics for the lowest price.

There may be a few 4200s around in the shops and it may be possible to drive a hard bargain. Perhaps a 128mb SD card should be thrown in with the camera to sweeten the deal.

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PANORAMA stitched together from four images from the CP4200...