Wilton Windmill, Wiltshire. Putting the depth of field to the test. Exposure is completely automatic, so you have no control except for setting the focus roughly a little past the closest point, as here.

Usually these shy animals require the use of a fairly long telephoto, fortunately this chap is pretty domesticated, so the Hi-Matic's slightly wide 38mm lens wasn't a disadvantage in this case.

The Minolta Hi-Matic proved a wonderful little camera. Fairly versatile, the range of focus being illustrated here - just perfect for everyday images. The exposure is generally spot on, the flash simple and easy to set, charges quickly and it takes cheap and readily available AA batteries. If you have one, keep it, it's very usable.

Unfortunately this camera is no longer with us. Trying to keep the cameras working leads to the occasional mishap and the Hi-Matic was totally destroyed after a very long drop.