Minolta Hi-Matic F

This was a camera that I wanted to own very much when I was in my late teens / early twenties and one that I could not afford at the time. I was very pleased then to get this one via ebay at a very cheap price (just 27 years late!). It was fully functional and came with new batteries and a spacer spring in place of the original pair of PX640 mercury batteries that are no longer available. The set up works fine and so far the smaller batteries have not proven to be a problem.

The Hi-Matic F is a very light camera but is still well made. It has a very similar specification to the GAF Memo 35ET, Mamiya 135 and Chinon 35EE although it is fitted with a 38mm f2.7 lens and has the advantage that this will focus to 0.8m or 2.6 ft as opposed to 1m 3.3ft of the other cameras. Of course, the Chinon 35EE has a f2.7 optic as well. The viewfinder is rather spartan when compared to the similar cameras as it does not provide much in the way of exposure information, only a tell-tale light that the shutter speed will be longer than 1/30 second in low light conditions. The shutter is electronically controlled and can achieve exposures of up to 4 seconds. The only problem with this is that the photographer doesn’t know anything more that it will be longer than 1/30^th and it can be quite difficult to tell when the shutter has closed at the end of the exposure when taking night scenes. This problem is even worse with some of the Minox 35 series cameras that can reach 30 seconds or more. One other feature of note is the shutter speed setting for flash operation. Firstly, the camera uses a setting of 1/20^th of a second, which seems too slow to me as this can easily blur ambient light images, and secondly, it is set by a small switch in the side of the accessory shoe which is automatically tripped when you attach the flashgun – odd. I haven’t tried this camera out with the flash yet so I don’t know how this will work out in practice.

Repairs

None needed so far.

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