10 of the best sports spectator gadgets

Nikon Coolpix P510

£400 europe-nikon.com
Nikon's new 16.1MP bridge camera comes with a 42x optical lens that'll pick out Usain Bolt's nostril hairs if you need it to. The P510 zooms from a respectable 24mm to a frankly incredible 1,000mm; perfect for grabbing a screen-filling close-up from the back seat of a stadium. Picture quality is excellent with rich colour tones and impeccable sharpness throughout the frame. As a do-it-all workhorse, with HD video on board, the P510 should tick all your summer spectator boxes.

Pure Move 2500

£90 pure.com
Tune into sport commentaries with this pocket-sized DAB/FM radio. The 2500 provides up to 14 hours of portable listening and comes with a decent pair of in-ear noise-cancelling headphones. If you're used to iPods, you'll like the mirrored steel back and front click-wheel and even though DAB radios tend to produce alien noises when the signal's weak, this one's better than most. Besides, you always have hissy FM to fall back on.

Sony PJ200E Handycam

£400 sony.co.uk
Sony's titchy touchscreen PJ200 is an impressive piece of kit for the money making it the ideal accessory for any cash-strapped spectators. Its smooth, variable 25x optical zoom takes you to the heart of the action and when you're back home, you can import the 1080p video to a Mac or PC, plug the Handycam into a telly via the HDMI port or – get this – project the footage direct from the camera to a blank wall. Perfect bragging gear.

Leica Monovid 8x20 monocular

£350 uk.leica-camera.com
This single-eye 8x20 monocular might not provide the three-dimensional image you'd get from binoculars, but it's so small and portable and provides such a crisp magnified view we reckon you'll grow attached to it pretty quickly. The additional screw-in close-up lens transforms the Monovid into a crystal-clear magnifying glass. Mind you, this level of class doesn't come cheap.

Fastime 14 stopwatch

£45, astopwatch.co.uk
If you're a motor-sport fan, a basic sub-£10 stopwatch just won't cut it – you'll need one that does more than just record a single lap. The Fastime 14 will not only time your favourite driver at an F1 race, it's also perfectly suited to multi-lap timing at the athletics come summer. Despite a scary amount of buttons, the Fastime 14 is actually quite easy to get your head around. No, really.