I used to use a Carl Zeiss (Jena) 35 mm, which had the three traditional
controls and a few rarely-used extras, but it is heavy and bulky and I
am getting too old to carry extra weight when walking.

I have been borrowing my wife's Olympus Mju, and find it the most
loathesome, gimmick-ridden heap of rubbish I have used in a long time.
So what I am wondering is whether there is any digital camera that is,
or can be configured to be, fairly gimmick-free.

I want to be able to photograph small things (e.g. flowers), where
time is not critical, so a reasonable zoom would be nice.

I want to be able to photograph from almost twilight to bright sun,
so need a reasonable range there.

But (and here's the rub) I want to be able to photograph animals,
traffic and children, so I need to be able to take a picture NOW.
And I need the camera to be ready for that unless I have specially
set it into another mode, including when just taken out of a pocket.
Ideally, 3 seconds setup from pocket in any light level, and taking
a picture within 0.2 seconds of pressing the button.  Hell, that used
to be possible :-(

I don't mind an arbitrary number of gimmicks, if they can be ignored
or won't be invoked by accident, but mixing them up with the critical
controls is just plain bad engineering.

I had no problem setting distance and aperture by touch alone on my
Zeiss, but realise that asking for that on a modern electronic device
is asking for the moon.  However, I do want reasonable simplicity.

Is that feasible nowadays?

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.