Photography. You'll probably get a variety of answers, but I would venture that a fast, professional level prime (L lenses for us Canon shooters) would be the top vote.
A spectroradiometer for display calibration (Colorimetry Research or equivalent) and Minolta colorimeter
Hobby wise: Not necessarily the pinnacle but a set of Magnepan speakers and an amp good enough to drive them. I just like the sound of them but not necessarily the peak for all enthusiasts.
Also a Stax headphones with a matching high voltage driver. Again, a niche product that isn't at the top of all headphone enthusiasts, but I like them. Alternative, Audeze LCD series. Guess the trend is that I like planars and electrostatics.
As a, primarily mobile developer, my own MacBook Air (MBA) and it's the M2 version.
I do get provided with MacBook Pros (MBP) for work but there's always that advice of separating your own stuff from work stuff. And I wanted to start doing my own stuff and experimenting with beta stuff and the like without messing up the stable dev environment for work. Even though I did consider shelling out for the MBP for more power, I think I valued portability more and the MBA was just way lighter and so far, all the stuff I'm tinkering with are relatively light weight or the M2 just handles it just fine.
Also the act of switching hardware physically gives me a good separation of life/hobby from work, especially not having access to my work code and environment which gives a bit of anxiety, just like the aura of being around work doesn't make me relaxed.
For simracing - a set of pedals with a load cell brake. Building muscle memory for the force you push on the brake is so much better than trying to be consistent with the angle of your ankle. The consistency you can achieve with braking is unreal.
Home espresso - a set of accurate scales and a timer. Reducing variables when trying to dial in a new bag of beans or when chasing that perfect cup is so handy. Like the the load cell brakes for sim racing, it allows you to be consistent and just change small things at a time and then stick to what works.
You seem like a very cool person, same exact hobbies for me!
For sim racing everyone in my groups are losing there minds over MOZA hardware. I had the chance to try an R9 and instantly fell in love
For Espresso all my friends are still obsess with the Niche Zero and the Decent Espresso DE1. I roast on a Ailio Bullet and am still very obsessed with it!
You know, as someone who likes coffee, I've felt the gains at that level of precision to be very marginal. I've been at places where they calibrate the shit out of everything and I wouldn't say they're better than places that don't, or some of the stuff I've had at home.
A really nice laminar flow hood for mycology. It basically provides a clean area so you can work with agar without worrying about introducing contamination or stuff you don't want. You can make a basic version for around $100 (or a still air box if you can't afford one), but a really nice hood is somewhere in the ballpark of $500-1000 for what is essentially a fan with a Very good hepa filter.
I do gunpla building, and the one thing you see most builders, regardless of level, immediately want to go for, is a pair of good single-bladed nippers. Usually the holy grail are the God Hand japanese brand nippers, as they perform a very clean and close cut to remove the plastic nubs off the parts, but other less expensive options exist. Sure, there are many different ways to deal with the plastic nubs that stay when you cut off a part from the runner, but the one tool almost everyone goes for, are those nippers. Usually, to the point of keeping two pairs, one to clip parts off the runner, and one just to cut off the nubs.
What kits would you say are the most satisfying to put together? I'm new, I've built a few, and love the hobby (though I've barely seen any of the show).
Well, I have mostly built just HG kits so far, but they're all so much fun to put together I can't really pick one. I think I'm gonna go with the Origin Zaku II, and the Moon Gundam.
It's a very weird hobby, with a lot of second-hand sales among the practitioners once you get in, because there's no large-scale production of equipment for the most part.
First Apple product I've purchased since the 2005 iPod Video. It does live to its hype for publicists/designers: Ridiculously powerful/optimized device for its form factor, P3 color calibrated 120Hz display covered by laminated glass, and with the support of software like Nomad Sculpt, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher, Procreate, DaVinci Resolve, Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro.
I think the only thing we're missing is a hard-surface modeling package like Blender, and actually usable IDEs like JetBrains Rider, but this thing which is the size and weight of a magazine is already an amazing professional toolbox.
As a photographer who also did some video services, I simply cannot imagine doing work on that tiny screen and limited storage space without a full blown OS. I don't know how some of you do it.
It's super easy and comfortable, actually. The only thing that might bother me a little is iPadOS, which has been a little buggy lately. Otherwise, 13 inches of screen and storage isn't an issue at all.
The screen is not small IMO. If it is for you, you can hook it up to an external display via USB-C to USB-C/HDMI or wirelessly via Airplay and basically turn it into a laptop/desktop with all the bells and whistles like external sound cards, keyboards, mice, external displays, MIDI instruments, microphones, HDDs/SSDs, etc.
I went for the 256 GB model which always has 100+GB of free storage because I always archive the finished projects onto either cloud or my own server, and delete them from my PC/iPad. Storage has never been an issue for me for as long as I can remember, but the iPads go up to 2 TB of internal memory.
I think that my only frustration with this thing is that it has the same hardware as the iMac/MacBook, and only because of the OS I can't install desktop programs on it. In your case, what part of a full-blown OS would you miss if you were to use an iPad to edit photos?
I work on two 30"+ monitors; 11-13" for a secondary machine is fine, but if it's my main I want bigger, and if I'm hooking all that up I might as well work on a desktop system that has a much higher TDP limit; power and flexibility-wise I don't think a tablet is something I'd be happy to settle with. This is before I get to the OS even, where I don't like not working with a full-fledge file system and a command line. And proper multitasking too.
If you like working on old Japanese motorcycles with carburetors, you really really want to have a JIS screwdriver. A Phillips will "work" ... but it'll tend to want to cam out of the bolt head, stripping it, especially if the bolts are corroded in place after 40 years. A proper JIS screwdriver has a different bit profile, designed for use with those bolts.
"So just get one, how hard can that be?" I hear you asking. A real, quality JIS screwdriver is expensive, at least in the States. And the cheap ones are often not actually JIS screwdrivers at all. Another option is replacing JIS bolts with allen head bolts, this is very common. But if you are a stickler for keeping things as original as possible ... it's got to be JIS.
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