The Fujifilm X-S1, which Pocket-lint had a brief fling with over in Vegas at CES, has hit UK shops, priced up at £699.

The Fujifilm X-S1 is a bridge camera that features a Fujinon 26x optical zoom lens and the same EXR sensor technology as the brand's X10 compact.

The fixed lens offers a range of 24-624mm (35mm equivalent), and a maximum aperture of f/2.8. Couple this with Fujifilm’s proprietary Intelligent Digital Zoom and you're apparently looking at a doubled focal range without a drop in picture quality. That means that it is possible to zoom up to a boasted 1,248mm.

The sensor is of a 12-megapixel EXR CMOS variety, while the EXR processor and the X-S1 is also capable of  Full HD video capture, at 30fps and stereo sound recording as well. Around the back, the camera sports a 3-inch LCD screen, with 460k dot resolution, and there's also a 0.47-inch electronic viewfinder with 1.44 million pixels.

When we took it for a spin over in Nevada we were impressed. The manual zoom lens is very cool, the viewfinder helps take superzooming to new levels and we have no doubt that image quality will be sublime. At almost £700 it is more expensive than a Nikon D5100 kit though.

The Fujifilm X-S1 is available now - stay tuned to Pocket-lint for a full review soon.