I’ve long been a fan of Sony’s digital camera range. Partnering their undoubted electronics expertise with the respected name of Carl Zeiss optics has produced consistently class leading results.

The DSC-N1 is the latest in a long line of Sony digicams and has most of the features associated with a high end camera: 8 megapixels, a video mode, a range of manual controls and a 3.8x zoom lens covering a 38mm-114mm range.

It also goes to ISO 800 - I’d like to see the noise performance of that!

The big news on this camera is the touch screen, allowing you to pick a focus point by touching it on the screen as well as operate the standard menu functions It’s an interesting idea - could make for a nice UI. It could make for an expensive repair when you drop it too!

RRP is $499, more details at sonystyle.com