Sometimes in this job you find yourself laughing with glee at the ingenuity of new technology. Somebody takes an existing concept and marries it to the cutting edge to create a gadget that surprises and delights.

Nikon has pulled it off with the S1000pj camera. Those little letters at the end of its name don’t stand for pyjamas (well, that was my first guess) but, wait for it, projector.

Yes, something which until recently was as big as a loaf of bread now fits inside a camera. How cool is that? It’s down to a new breed called pico-projectors that will soon see everything from mobiles to MP3 players capable of throwing a big image onto a nearby wall.

You can already buy standalone pico-projectors that connect to, for example, your iPod or laptop. But Nikon has become the first manufacturer to incorporate one into a compact camera.

If you didn’t know what was special about the S1000pj, you’d probably dismiss it as a little too tubby and even ugly. The boxy shape and thick waist contrast with the supermodel waifs that are its rivals. Once you’ve snapped a few images, though, the Nikon’s party trick comes into play. With a quick flip of a switch, it projects images from the memory card up to 40 inches in diameter onto any suitable surface — wall, ceiling, passing elephant, whatever. The terminally lazy will appreciate the tiny remote control to drive the picture show.

Instant amazement from anyone nearby is guaranteed, just be sure to delete any embarrassing ones before you project.

Of course, there are caveats to this feat of miniaturisation. The fairly feeble lamp inside the S1000pj means it works convincingly only in darkened rooms and the crispness of the images leaves a little to be desired. Battery life is understandably poor if you’re constantly showing off.

Besides its attention-grabbing projector, the Nikon functions like a regular camera. The high price coupled with its 12-megapixel resolution and 5x zoom puts it in some pretty exalted company from the likes of Canon and Sony.

This is where the compromise starts to show. Image quality is perfectly acceptable but just not in the same league, particularly in low light, as that of its competitors.

You will find better cameras for less money elsewhere but no other snapper does what the S1000pj can. It couldn’t be fairly described as a one-trick pony but, even so, what a trick.