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.

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.