I only just discovered the little croquet backwater on Kenan's Analog Roam blog. This has to be the most amusing course map I have ever seen for any sport. How can you resist challenges like "The Hill of Yelling and Throwing Things" and "The Flower Box of Certain Consternation"?

Ah, the ostensibly-civilized savagery of croquet.

I yearn to try this course, yea though I know it will reduce me to a whining mass of wicket-mangled pulp.

Unfortunately, the trip updates may be delayed a day or two, or may appear out of order, because I'm still waiting for the film processing of the photos.

I took my Nikon SLR with me because my new digital camera, a Canon Powershot G2, doesn't have much capacity with the supplied 32mb CF card. It's more than the typical 8mb or 16mb cards you get with most digicams, but still nothing compared to the 1gb Microdrive I am anxiously awaiting. I tend to burn a lot of film, so that Microdrive is a definite necessity. Esp[ecially with a 4-megapixel camera that produces huge RAW image files.

So, let's talk digital cameras. There are full reviews of the G2 all over the place, including here at DP Review. I'm going to focus on my personal impressions that haven't been reported elsewhere.

The G2 is in that category known as the "prosumer" camera, on the high end of consumer cameras, just before you get to the nifty but expensive digital SLRs.

In an ideal world, I would have got the upcoming Nikon D100, which is compatible with all of my Nikon lenses. But I've decided to hold out on buying a digital SLR until the following critera are met:

• image sensor is 35mm negative size or larger (the D100 has an APS-negative sized sensor)
• resolution of said sensor is sufficient to produce exhibition-quality prints at least 16x20 inches in size
• feature set is functionally equivalent to the features available on my N90s 35mm SLR
• made by Nikon, and
• $2000 or less

Until then, a digital SLR doesn't make much sense, since my primary goal with my 35mm-format / medium format / large format photography is producing a fine print.

So, I chose a prosumer camera that would give me the image control I'm used to and acceptable print quality at smaller sizes, but will primarily be used for making digital images I don't intend to print and exhibit. Online exhibition on this site will be their ultimate destination.

So, why the Powershot G2?

Here's what I like about it:

• Automatic exposure bracketing
• Manual focus
• Multiple "film speeds" (ISO 50 to 400)
• Manual control of aperture, shutter speed, or both
• "Fast" lens which will serve well in low and ambient light situations
• A decent zoom range
• Compatible with filters and auxiliary lens attachments
• Massive image capacity with a 1gb Microdrive
• Flexible flash control and external flash compatibility
• The fold-out-and-twist LCD screen is the coolest thing ever. Self-portraits, candids, waist-level shots are all incredibly easy.

These are all things I am accustomed to having in my 35mm and MF cameras. Point and shoot-style cameras drive me up the wall because I can't make choices. This one, like most modern pro/prosumer cameras, has a dummy mode for handing the camera to someone else, but also provides a great degree of flexibility.

In short, it's a good digital camera for point-and-shooters who want 4-megapixel resolution, but it's a great camera for the advanced shooter who wants a good balance of image quality, creative control, and reasonable street price (about $650).

But here's the meat of this post, because after tinkering with the thing for a while, I have found some annoying flaws, and you should bear these in mind if you're considering this camera.

• It is incredibly annoying not to know the 35mm-equivalent focal length of the zoom. How hard could it be to provide this as a display on the LCD screen? If I want to shoot with a "50mm" perspective, I have to guesstimate the zoom because there is no feedback at all on the focal length you are zoomed to. Not even the actual focal length of the lens, let alone the 35mm equivalency.

  If you are the sort of person who, like me, views a zoom lens as "a bag full of fixed lenses in a small package" rather than an "instant cropper", you may also find this annoying.

• There is a slow-sync flash mode for photographing a foreground subject against a dark nighttime background. This is great, but there isn't any rear-curtain sync, which is essential for achieving the same effect if your foreground subject is moving.

  Also, the slow sync is only available through one of the built-in Program AE "dummy" modes, meaning many of the other features cannot be manually adjusted when using this mode. Strange thing to do for such an advanced feature.

• There are 4 color effect modes you can select: Vivid Color, Natural Color, Sepia, and Black-and-White. Like the slow sync feature, these are only available when you set the mode ring to the effects-mode position. So if you're thinking you can do real-time manual-exposure B/W photography with colored filters, think again. Especially surprising is that the 2 color modes can not be selected from any shooting mode. This is a pretty standard pro technique; it's why pro slide films tend to come in "vivid" and "natural" varieties. Human skin tones, for example, tend to look better in "natural" color, while landscape and nature photos often benefit from "vivid" color.

  Granted, you can do all of these modes by post-processing in Photoshop, but it would be really exciting if you had real-time control of the color saturation of the image. The real-time visualization of grey levels for B/W photography would be a major godsend for B/W photographers, who have always had to rely on a combination of intuition, experience, and kludgey viewing filters for imagining a scene in its colorless state.

• The autofocus is rather slow, and manual focus is not much better because you still have to wait for the motor to rack out the lens. This is typical of any prosumer camera, and the price I knew I was paying for not getting an SLR, but it is still annoying.

Overall, in spite of these annoyances, I consider this a brilliant piece of camera worksmanship which I would recommend to anyone. I just wish they had had that extra bit of vision that would have made this camera truly revolutionary.

I think at least some of my issues could be addressed by an after-market firmware update, so maybe the revolution will still come. Vive la revolution!

By way of the newly-redesigned Beatbox, I learned of the Google Name Game, in which one does a Google exact-phrase search for the phrase "Your-first-name is" and collects the results.

I decided to collate my results into a sort of Q-and-A bio of myself. Naturally, most of the facts are wrong, but I think the spirit is mostly accurate.

Enjoy...

What do you look like?

Jonathan is cute.

Jonathan is a hunk!

What kind of work do you do?

Jonathan is a staff writer for O'Reilly & Associates, a job that allows him to exercise the right and left sides of his brain but little of his body.

Jonathan is a competent technologist, information scientist, and project manager.

In his current research, Jonathan is applying data mining technology (otherwise known as Exploratory Data Analysis or Knowledge Discovery in Databases)...

Jonathan is also known around the Labs as 'The Cleaner' as he throws his hands into many projects and cleans up other people's messes.

Does that really pay the bills? What else do you do?

Jonathan is a hot tramp!

Jonathan is available by appointment.

Ummm...ok...so, uh...what do you do for fun?

Jonathan is one of the world's leading polar photographers and expeditioners.

Jonathan is also widely published on marine life subjects.

Jonathan is a student in London who spends most of his time (and money) on theatre.

Jonathan is heavily involved in supporting community projects, such as the Teddy Bear Patrol to collect teddy bears to distribute to area police and fire departments to use to comfort children in crisis situations

Jonathan is Principal Cellist with Manchester Camerata.

Jonathan is musical director of two large adult choruses.

Jonathan is one third of the basement-rock band THE MUCKRAKERS, along with Todd Berg and David Casimir.

Through his pervasive experience, Jonathan is equally at home in both the popular and classical music worlds.

Jonathan is also a founder member of the UK Coloured Pencil Society.

Are you up to anything interesting these days?

Jonathan is set to star in director Mike Hodges new film.

Jonathan is cast in the Radio 4 presentation of The Weather in the Streets (The Classic Serial series) beginning Sun 10 Feb.

Jonathan is Planning for New Years.

Jonathan is not currently on tour. You don't have to believe us, you can also check Pollstar.

What have others had to say about you?

"Jonathan is an incredible communicator. ... Jonathan is a very talented speaker!"

The head of Saint Francis Xavier's, Brother Francis, said: "Jonathan is not a swot. ... We are so proud of him."

"Jonathan is a great communicator and he brings an element of fun to his work," states Kathy Ireland.

"Jonathan is my major TURN ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

What is some good advice your friends have given you?

"I would think that what is important for Jonathan is that he write according to his muse, and let the audience come to him."

And how do you think your friends see you?

The thing about Jonathan is that he never ducks anything.

Jonathan is an Investment that Pays for Itself. Jonathan makes events fun, memorable and most importantly, financially successful.

Tell us an interesting story about yourself.

Guided by the unforgettable Alex, his young Ukrainian translator, who writes in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic search.

In addition, he [Alex] looks and acts like a monkey, confirmed by his eating a banana and pretending that Jonathan is a tree he can climb.

Jonathan is worse than that.

Jonathan is caught up in a maelstrom of malicious gossip.

Again, the thought of David becoming sexually aroused after kissing Jonathan is too threatening for Bible translators.

Why should people visit your site?

Whatever your interest in Jonathan is, from basic drooling to his early guest spots, from his star turn as Will and Thom Riker, to his directorial debut, we've got something for you here.

Any parting words for fans of your blog?

Let us know if you're as excited as Jonathan is about David Bowie coming in this week.