Whats your most expensive hobby?

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JBroida

KKF Vendor
Founding Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
6,801
Reaction score
1,736
Location
Beverly Hills, CA
I know we are all dorky about knives here, but clearly we all have many other hobbies too. I've seen watches, vinyl records, cooking, eating out, travel, cameras, and more on here. Where does the bulk of your hard earned $$$ go?

Personally, i'm a split between eating out and camera stuff. They both kill my wallet more than knives ever could.

Where do you guys stand? Or are you one of those REAL crazies who spends all of his/her hard earned cash on knives? :)
 
All of my camera lenses barely eclipse my one watch.

I do love me some macro lenses:

New macro family portrait by lmaousrs, on Flickr

more or less left to right: Zeiss ZF 50mm F2.0 Makro-Planar Vivitar Series 1 90mm f2.5 Macro Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 Auto-Macro Olympus OM 90mm f2.0 Auto-Macro Olympus OM 50mm f2.0 Auto-Macro Leica 100mm f2.8 APO Macro Elmarit R Leica 60mm f2.8 Macro Elmarit R Nikon 55mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor Nikon 55mm f3.5 Micro-Nikkor
 
All of my camera lenses barely eclipse my one watch.

I do love me some macro lenses:

New macro family portrait by lmaousrs, on Flickr

more or less left to right: Zeiss ZF 50mm F2.0 Makro-Planar Vivitar Series 1 90mm f2.5 Macro Olympus OM 50mm f3.5 Auto-Macro Olympus OM 90mm f2.0 Auto-Macro Olympus OM 50mm f2.0 Auto-Macro Leica 100mm f2.8 APO Macro Elmarit R Leica 60mm f2.8 Macro Elmarit R Nikon 55mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor Nikon 55mm f3.5 Micro-Nikkor

That is AWESOME!!! I thought i had a lens addiction, but now i feel better about my collection.
 
I think I'm finally getting over G.A.S
A familiar term on the guitar forums.
 
That is AWESOME!!! I thought i had a lens addiction, but now i feel better about my collection.

Thanks.

But if anything, my existence as a collector serves only to validate "real" photographers insistence that gear makes zero difference. I am absolutely guilty of using some of the best 35mm lenses ever made to take pictures of cats:
e.g.
13472339404_da605497b8_b.jpg

My grandfather's OM-2sp which I upfit with a 2-4 screen and a 50/2 macro. I used it to take this:
9432015430_faaed022ac_c.jpg


or perhaps even more offensive I have this lovely Sinar F1:
10236357144_96389e85bb_c.jpg

which again I used to take this picture of a cat:
7664886342_7eaccd3681_c.jpg


Nothing quite says "Im a serious photographer" like black and white cat photos on a 4x5.
 
haha... still really cool though. I really want to pick up some new lenses and maybe a medium format body now too :(
 
Nothing quite says "Im a serious photographer" like black and white cat photos on a 4x5.
Could be a Leica or Hasselblad "street" photographer taking prefocused photos of female posteriors. LF cat pictures are a lot less creepy.
 
Fishing is an expensive hobby, yes, a lot of my money goes towards fishing tackle.
 
Audio was my most expensive, but I haven't spent much on that in a while. Watches, lately.
 
Food. Either eating out cooking and related equipment/utensils
 
Just 2 years ago it was photography - 2 large format cameras (Tachihara 4x5" and Toyo VX125), Rolleiflex, Mamiya 6, Xpan. Then our little girl was born and I quickly realized that I will not have time for large format anytime soon and sold all that part of equipment. I still have the remaining 3 cameras (though I will probably slim down further), but with all I have invested in knives (in particularly the gyuto from Andy) - it may be a draw.

One of my very last photographs with large format:


Taken with Tachihara 4x5 (but a different lens than shown here):


I miss shooting 4x5" ...
 
Just 2 years ago it was photography - 2 large format cameras (Tachihara 4x5" and Toyo VX125), Rolleiflex, Mamiya 6, Xpan. Then our little girl was born and I quickly realized that I will not have time for large format anytime soon and sold all that part of equipment. I still have the remaining 3 cameras (though I will probably slim down further), but with all I have invested in knives (in particularly the gyuto from Andy) - it may be a draw.

One of my very last photographs with large format:


Taken with Tachihara 4x5 (but a different lens than shown here):


I miss shooting 4x5" ...

I love my 4x5 as well, but it became a hobby that is way too expensive since there is no more shops that can develop the slides at an affordable price. Nor i have time for b&w anymore. :(
 
Once a collector, always a collector. For me it started with cameras. Canon SLR, Leica M, now I just use a Fuji digital (it looks like a Leica ...). Then it was watches (Rolex). Then knives (lots :) DE shaving is creeping up on the collector agenda a bit now. Luckily I have beautiful baby twins to distract me (and my $$$), so I'm a bit less focused on the collections. Then again, once a collector ... ;)
 
I love my 4x5 as well, but it became a hobby that is way too expensive since there is no more shops that can develop the slides at an affordable price. Nor i have time for b&w anymore. :(

Time is an issue indeed. Developing for me was OK as I never shot that much. Scanning was even more than developing - I used to pay ca. 7€ for a single scan (Hasselblad X5, so rather good quality). I keep telling myself I will go back to 4x5 (or even larger) in the (rather distant) future.
 
For me it was shoes. Nice shoes/boots, not sneakers. Then photography replaced that, and there's still the itch to continue, but I've for the most part gotten that under control. Past few years the knife thing has gotten a little out of control. Really trying to real that back in.
And of course there's my daughter who's not even two yet...
 
Most of my money, goes to knives and stones, without question. I'm not super into stuff and so I usually give things away after I'm done with them, books, etc.
I think the most ridiculous thing might be my Nintendo fanboy crap. I don't go too crazy, but I'm into it and anything video game related feels like a pretty indulgent expense.
I did name my son Link...
 
Books. I buy a lot of books and food. Ate at a great Filipino restaurant last night.
 
Knifes and stones cost me a bundle but I also got a hole in my pocket from : Functional glass art, non cutting cooking/kitchen equipment, growing gear, hifi stuff, organic/exotic/high end produces to cook with (like vanilla from Tahiti), diverse small equipment, I even do a little bit of photography, I also like good shoes and wool clothing, it adds up. I like being stuffed up but it's tough being a gear head sometimes.
 
Woodworking is my most expensive hobby by far. The costs of wood and tools have exceeded the combined cost of all my knives and things are getting worse.
 
I've collected coins for the last 5 years, but that has slowed down a lot lately. Focus lately has been on infant kids and daycare.
 
Back
Top