With an 8.1 megapixel resolution, this Vivicam is one of the highest-res cameras you can find, unless you’re looking to toss down a thousand bills. It’s easy to use, but it’s also packed with features and controls so it’s as well-suited to the creative shutterbug as it is to photographers in the Dick Cheney point-and-shoot school.

It boasts a 3x optical power zoom lens for far-off subjects and a macro function for pictures taken as close as two inches. It has a handy Auto Exposure feature, a selectable 4X digital zoom feature (for use during recording or playback) and a continuous/burst mode to help you capture subjects in motion. Auto exposure bracketing takes three images with different exposure settings and allows you to select and keep the best image of the three. And yeah, it takes movies, too.

The 8300’s ample two-and-a-half-inch LCD is big, bright and easy-to-see, so even your visually-impaired great aunt Val will be able to tell you to “delete that one and take another one; [her] mouth was hanging open.”

At just a bit over an inch thick, the Vivicam’s slim, good body fits comfortably in your jacket pocket. But there will still be rare occasions when you won’t—or can’t—take it with you. You know, like at strip clubs, movie previews and airport security gates. For such times, the Vivicam comes in an attractive leather box where it and its carrying case can be stored.