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The Nikon Coolpix L22 digital camera measures 9.5cm long, 6cm tall and between 2 and 2.5cm thick. The unit I was sent was silver grey with chrome on the face and sides and matt black on the rear. The TFT screen is also matt in finish making it easier to read in strong sunlight.

The sides are clear of sockets except for the wrist strap anchor point on the right side. The base has the solid battery door where you also place any SD card you might use. The base also has A/V and USB port as well as the anchor point for a tripod.

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The top has a small on/off button with the far larger shutter release button to its right; this also has the wide angle /telephoto adjuster around it.

On the front is the lens that can protrude up to 2.5cm. The flash is mounted above and to the right so is always at least 4cm from the lens.  

This leaves the back that is of course dominated by the 6x4.5cm TFT screen the imperial 3inch diagonal measurement. To its right are the controls four buttons and the ubiquitous five position joystick all clearly marked.

I am asked if these units should be held in one or both hands. I see no reason – providing you are comfortable – in saying either. There is a space above the buttons on the back for the thumb to sit leaving the next finger to operate the shutter and the other fingers to sit on the front of the camera making the grip. However some may prefer the extra stability of having the left hand securing the other side of the camera in place.

This is a 12MP offering with 3.6x optical zoom. There are two modes in the top 12MP resolution (different compression) both capture at 4000x3000. 8MP is next 3264x2448, 5MP 2592x1944, 3MP 2048x1536, next finally what they call PC 1024x768 and then the normal VGA 640x480. A single 16:9 mode is supplied 3968x2232.

There are two sizes in movie mode called TV movie 640x480 and small size 320x240.

There are no less than 16 modes once you have progressed beyond the Easy Auto mode although this does take rather nice images with almost all the choices made by the camera.

The 16 modes are Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Close Up (Macro), Food, Museum, Fireworks, Copy, Backlight and Panorama.

While my review period did not allow me to try all the modes all I did seemed to work well giving a better result than just using Easy Auto. There are two further modes placed outside the 16 mode toggle of Smart Portrait and Auto.

As with most cameras I found an A4 image (the largest most will print) was perfectly gettable from the 3MP setting and should you want to print part of the image then 5MP should be plenty.

A nice solid unit from a well known name the price although higher than some lesser names is not that off putting.

Doing my Internet searches found the Nikon Coolpix L22 at a best price of £73.47 including free delivery from the first link below. For some reason red version is 48p cheaper and black one £4.52 more expensive.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0036PCF54?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

I found the Nikon Coolpix L22 available for $92.99 including free delivery from Amazon on the first link below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036ORZC8?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a5-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789

I found the Nikon Coolpix L22 available for €87,90 including free delivery from Amazon on the first link below.

http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B0036PCF54?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge04-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1642

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/products/product_details.page?ID=8008117