Most photographers know that a digital SLR offers the best possible image quality, but most are heavy and can draw unwanted attention when you're shooting candid street shots or if you're in a place where photography isn't really appreciated.

It's for these situations that a number of camera manufacturers are trying to tempt owners of SLRs to buy a second camera - a deluxe professional compact. The tiny Nikon CoolPix P5100 is just such a camera with full-featured controls, magnesium-alloy body, a 3.5x zoom, VR image stabilisation and a whopping 12.1MP image sensor.

Well, those are the headline specs, but how does the P5100 stack up when you're trying to use it as a replacement SLR?

First, the weight at a mere 200g without its battery is superbly light. The P5100 is the kind of camera you can grab just as you're going out the door and stuff in a jacket or camera bag pocket.

On the top-plate is a mode dial that offers PASM exposure modes and some scene presets. A simple thumbwheel operates changes for things like aperture or shutter settings. For everything else there's the usual navipad cluster with quick access to drive mode, EV compensation, flash mode and focus mode. There's also a Function button that can be programmed as a shortcut to any setting of your choice such as, say, white balance. Just as well since the menu system of the P5100 is hardly a model of clarity or logic.

A little wishy washy

At the rear of the camera is a slightly wishy-washy 2.5-inch LCD, which is easily overpowered in bright sunlight - thankfully there's a conventional optical viewfinder for such situations. Other points worthy of note include a Nikon Speedlite-compatible hotshoe, although the size of the P5100 means that using any of the Nikon dedicated flashguns would make the whole structure top heavy and faintly ridiculous.