I must admit, I've totally given up on the idea of Nokia launching a new photography focused Nseries device in 2008. But no matter, this gives me a few months to prepare for the onslaught in 2009!

I'm confident that we'll see some big leaps next year. 8 mega pixels for photography, a return to optical zoom and even 720p HD video capture are all probable additions to the Nseries family. With this in mind, I've decided to standardise my photographic and video capture testing apparatus and procedures.

Allow me to introduce the Kodak V1253, a cheap but powerful point and shoot camera with HD (720p) video capture.

As of today this camera can be bought on Amazon for £114. Here are the specs:

12mp still capture

3X optical zoom

1280 x 720 (720p) video capture in MP4 format

Stereo sound capture

Image stabilisation

Face detection

A very large 16:9 colour display

This is the camera that I'll be comparing all new Nokia devices to in 2009. Why? Simply because it's a cheap but capable device which is well within the price range of anybody considering an Nseries purchase. The photographic capabilities of the Kodak are probably superior to anything we'll see on a phone this side of 2011, but the video capture is just about what I would expect from the very first HD capable Nokia Nseries device - much more detail than SD, but with a few obvious floors and annoying limitations!

For examples of what the Kodak V1253 is capable of check out this blog post. For direct comparisons between this cheap point and shoot camera and Nokia’s finest phones come back soon!

What do you think, am I expecting too much to think that a phone could match this Kodak anytime soon? Can you think of a better camera that would be more useful as a comparison?