Casio will bring the first 12-megapixel compact digital camera to the UK later this month, the company best known for its calculators and digital watches said today.

Casio's Z1200: more megapixels than you can shake a stick at

The Exilim Zoom EX-Z1200 builds on the Z1000 ten-megapixel camera launched last year and a revised version, the Z1050, brought to market by Casio earlier this year.

The new model sports the customary 3x optical zoom and the now de rigeuer anti-blur, anti-shake technology. Its motion detection system allows the camera to automatically set the ISO sensitivity and shutter speed for fast-moving subjects.

The Z1200 has a 2.8in LCD viewfinder and packs in 114MB of memory. An SD/MMC-compatible memory card slot makes for more photo storage space, and the camera can take high-capacity SDHC cards.

Casio's Z1200: hi-res widescreen video grabber too

The camera will shoot video at up to 840 x 480 at 30fps, but you'll definitely need a memory card for footage - the internal memory is big enough to hold just 13s of video at that resolution.

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The Z1200's battery is sufficiently capacious for 340 shots per charge, Casio claimed.

Due to hit the shops by the end of the May, the Z1200 will retail for around £280.

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