As a kid I was generally regarded as one of those obsessive types. I'd start on a hobby or enthusiasm and plunder it to the point of exhaustion. This was in the sixties when everyone else was boring or into The Beatles, Rolling Stones or drugs. By the time I had grown up obsessive was respectable and even had a name. I was being a geek.

There's a fine line between being a geek, nerd and an anorak. There's also a lot of injustice involved. Why is socially acceptable to be enthusiastic about something catastrophically dull like fishing or football but as soon as you own up to dismantling your computer you attract a derogatory label? Train enthusiasts and stamp collectors are fair game, they deserve derision. However I think you'll find that being able to name the bridge crews of both the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC1701-A and -D is an example of an enquiring mind.

But even a geek has to acknowledge there are some lines you don't cross. These days I rarely answer my mobile with "Kirk to Enterprise", although I do admit to attending a Star Trek convention. It was for work. Okay, yes I quite enjoyed it. That's not the point.

The point is, being a geek has boundaries and I've recently discovered one of mine. It happened with a digital camera.

After a couple of years with a basic point and shoot, I thought it was time for something more sophisticated. More buttons and knobs will make me a better photographer, I reasoned. Technology is not generally something which phases me. I've used a computer for 20 years and have been poking around the insides of audio equipment since I was 15. I recently dismantled my Apple Powerbook and was only mildly perturbed to find a piece left over when I'd reassembled it. (I exclude video recorders from my list of technological mastery as they are designed by the devil and are quite possibly sentient.)

So I was bit miffed when I realised that I wasn't getting on with my new camera as much as anticipated. It took brilliant pictures, despite the operator. The instruction book runs to 167 pages and I have been known to take manuals on holiday for bedtime reading. Nonetheless, each time I switched on the camera, the onscreen menu put me into option shock. Graphs and griddy line things appeared at random and I was recently confronted by the enigmatic message "LOCK" in important-looking red letters. Lock what? Is someone about to steal my pictures?

In the end, I gave up. I can only be geeky about three subjects at any given time and photography isn't going to be one of them. I've bought a simpler camera. It's small, non-intimidating and has only THREE CONTROLS on the back. Furthermore the menu uses English words in a context I understand. For the time being at least, I have reached the limits of geek.

However, a word of warning; get me onto those other three subjects and you're doomed.