Bill, when are you going to do an F-5 video?:fisher:

[vlad]

A video showing the features and then hunting with the detector makes an essay obsolete. Seems like
all the detector reviews start out by saying, "I'm going to touch briefly on the controls/setup",or something
to that effect because the, "tester has only limited space." Then they do a synopsis on how it performed
on certain targets at known depths in a demo. They end up by doing a short hunt which covers only one phase
of detecting, maybe coins for example and never touch on other fields like relics or jewelry. This generally
leaves the reader with more questions than answers, even on the hunting scenario performed, especially
when the tester says he really did not have time to play around with the controls, again due to a limit on the
article size, or having a deadline.
And since most of us cannot afford to buy a detector every time something new comes out, seeing the detector
being used, and follow ups in other phases of detecting are a real plus. [I'd love to see how the 11" loop works on
the F-70 and the 10" concentric on the F-75. I know you must be bombarded by these questions, alone.]

 

[Bill Ladd]

Since they have passed out all the F5's to people with no video cameras and no promotional experience......
My last F70 colonial hunt got 301 views the first day.
The F70 intro I did has been watched 2159 times worldwide, & that figure grows each day......
Hopefully the powers that be understand this promotion is better than anything anybody could write, as written field tests are taken with a grain of salt nowadays anyhow....
I'd be willing to start doing other brands on camera even......people seeing, hearing, & believing translates into sales....
I would wager showing an actual hunt & digging a 1787 Fugio cent and an 1802 Large cent on camera, or even the kid finding a mercury dime in his yard (1494 views) is FAR better than the testing you described.....
Maybe some of the viewers like you can comment if they agree or not....
Thanks for asking,
Bill
PS. I like your idea about swapping the F75/F70 coils....if I can make the time that will be my next video

 

[thompy]

good reply bill

 

[Golden Silver]

My 2 cents. I was waiting for the release of the F5 and eventual reviews as I WAS interested in acquiring one. I was sold on the display with the addition of multi-knobs which I prefer over an all-pushpad display. Today I was contacted by Mike Scott at Fisher and he told me that the F5 might make its appearance around the beginning of June, fingers crossed.

He called me again while in the field testing one because I had brought up the fact that my BH Land Star does not have 100% discrimination where one can eliminate copper cents and the machine can still sound off on dimes, quarters, halves. I told him that while I lived in L.A. I was able to retrieve thousands of clad coins, particularly copper cents, without needing tumbling to clean them up. I took a photo of 1,700 clad copper cents neatly stacked. They didn't need cleaning and I didn't even own a tumbler in L.A. But here in NYC soil the clad coins come out so corroded that I have thrown away hundreds if not thousands of corroded cents. With my Mark I I could run up the DISC until it ignored copper cents but would still pick up dimes, etc. Mike was bowled over because no one had thought of such and he complimented the Mark I as being ahead of its time.

While he was on the phone I could hear the test F5 sounding off and he gave me bad news. The display goes to 99 and in DISC to 65 and it sounds off on the copper cents and they cannot be DISC'ed out! He is going to mention it to the proper person in Fisher's R&D department.

So I don't think you'll be testing an F5 any time soon unless you get a pre-production model and it might not have been tweaked. But I'm still looking forward to your review and all others although if they don't improve the DISC to be 100% effective, meaning at full rotation it will remain silent, I may not bother with the F5. I need control over a machine, not the other way 'round.

Golden Silver

 

[jmaryt]

i agree bill,and told you so a while back!..it is unmistakable proof that the detector will work as designed,and seeing results in the field speaks for itself!..hell!..is there a better way?..no!..unless first texas let ME "borrow" one to do my OWN testing!..keep dreamin'!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[jmaryt]

bill!..i have a question!..why do you think first texas passed them out to others ,and NOT you?..it would appear your (p.r) effort was successful!

regards!
(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I had a Mark 1 and if you disc out the copper pennies you also lost the dimes too as they did read the same if i remember right. The Silver dimes would read higher and would get them, but not the clad ones. That was one thing i did like about the Mark 1 was you could tell a silver coin from a clad one by the meter reading. Some machine will disc out the zinc penny and you can still get the copper ones, but you also will lose the IH pennies too. I find on my detectors I will not disc out zinc penny and will dig the deeper sounding ones as they will be early Wheaties and IH pennies. My Friend James-ND just got one of those zinc pennies signals this weekend and being it was deeper sounding than most zinc penny and when dug was a nice 1909 Wheaties and it had the S on it, but no VDB, so that was a $100 + coin someone had missed by disc out the zinc penny in this well worked RR Park.

 

[robert roy]

Yup. Can't judge a book by its cover, they say.
People are probably better off with the F4 and F75.
Given some time, maybe the bugs will be worked out of the new machines but I wouldn't
hold my breath too long.
RR

 

[robert roy]

Why can't YOU make the video/DVD and sell it. If Fisher wants to lose money then great.
You collect the money and keep it. Serves them right for not having more regard for their customers.
RR

 

[Golden Silver]

[quote Rick(ND)]I had a Mark 1 and if you disc out the copper pennies you also lost the dimes too as they did read the same if i remember right. The Silver dimes would read higher and would get them, but not the clad ones. That was one thing i did like about the Mark 1 was you could tell a silver coin from a clad one by the meter reading. Some machine will disc out the zinc penny and you can still get the copper ones, but you also will lose the IH pennies too. I find on my detectors I will not disc out zinc penny and will dig the deeper sounding ones as they will be early Wheaties and IH pennies. My Friend James-ND just got one of those zinc pennies signals this weekend and being it was deeper sounding than most zinc penny and when dug was a nice 1909 Wheaties and it had the S on it, but no VDB, so that was a $100 + coin someone had missed by disc out the zinc penny in this well worked RR Park.[/quote]
Your comments hit the nail on the head (and discriminated it! and stressed what I was talking about in my criticism of modern detectors that do not give you the choice the Mark I (& Ltd) did. Having such a feature allows you to maximize your detecting and digging time. Sure, you can go to a site that has not been detected before or lightly detected if you know the history of the site. On such a site I wouldn't even use discrimination, just ALL METALS or maybe DISC with a low setting.

But if you go to a well-used site such as Central Park in NYC (no detecting is allowed, just using it as an example) you have to deal with a carpet of junk. You have a choice of removing as much junk as you encounter, which will be tons, or you can just dial the Mark I's DISC knob to just knock out copper cents and still go home with dimes, quarters, halves, etc. What a lot of newbies don't understand about such a detector is that it gave you the choice of advancing the DISC to maximum so that nothing was HEARD (the meter still indicated targets), and then opening a NOTCH window to find just that one item you wanted such as fiinding a particular lost ring.

Perhaps the Mark I from the '80s is considered old technology but it was advanced for its time and even now it can do things that modern, high tech detectors cannot do. Like I said, even Mike Scott while testing the F5 was surprised when he advanced the DISC control to MAX yet the detector continued to sound off. That is NOT choice.

I just passed on a hand-held Mark I Ltd because I had to consider that the solid housing is a bit heavy, even hip-mounted, and it requires 14 AAs which, by themselves, weigh approx. 11+ ounces. And I would have had to send it Keith Wills to convert to hip-mount costing an additional $180. I owned mine for about 15 years and I do not regret ever having it over more expensive machines (it originally cost almost $800!) and I'm sorry I eventually sold it when I could not detect in Central Park any longer.

I had to pass on this Mark I Ltd but it was tempting. I may also eventually buy an F5 and use the VDI to tell the difference in coins but not being able to use the DISC control as it should have been designed is always going to be a bother somewhere in the back of my mind. Maybe Mike Scott will be successful in convincing Fisher's R&D department to open up the DISC feature. Fingers crossed.

Golden Silver

 

[vlad]

PLUS, you can identify the cents by meter readout number [it gives individual numbers for targets within a notch.]

 

[vlad]

n/t

 

[vlad]

Can people download your video by burning a copy from YOU TUBE? With inexpensive DVD players
made for cars, it sure would be a help to walk back to the car for on the spot help.

 

[Golden Silver]

[quote vlad]You do lose depth running that much discrimination, especially on older technology.n/t[/quote]

Possibly so. But in NYC parks there are no deep coins or objects. Every one of the thousands of coins that I retrieve, regardless of age or composition, came from less than 5 inches. I always probed first with my homebuilt fiberglass probe and it just took inserting the probe gently into the ground and touching the coin/object without effort. Like I said earlier, in different locations where junk was not predominant, DISC would be much lower. While in L.A. I used DISC as far as foil/pulltabs/screwcaps and recovered a ton of copper cents because unlike NYC soil, they were rarely unusable. Here in NYC they're worthlessly corroded. Ergo: high DISC.

 

[vlad]

your video, it basically means you have done all the REAL WORK, and they can just use your work and
make an easily written FIELD TEST [without really doing anything new] as Fisher seems to want an essay
for the preferred method of Testing Review for their detectors. [Anybody can change around words to make their test
look different.] And they get PAID. I doubt anyone gives credit to your work by reference, Bill.
Royalties..........-NOT!

 

[chuck ky]

what keeps them from going deeper. a lot of the coins here in kentucky aren't deep but my oldest park is 1894 and i have found a lot of coins deeper than 5 inches.

 

[Bill Ladd]

It's alot of work detecting with camera equipment, then uploading & doing editing on the computer, adding music, etc. More than people think I bet. (especially if your using an older computer as video files are huge). It's lots of work that I'm doing because I enjoy it right now, & it's keeping my name out there in the detecting world, and I strongly feel it's better than what I could type. If I said in a written field test I dug a 1787 fugio cent with the F70 at 8" that ID'ed correctly folks would say "yea, RIGHT!" or "HYPE!"
But, now there it is right on film.....
HH,
Bill

 

[jmaryt]

couldn't agree more bill!....can't question a real life experience!..if it got any more REAL,it would jump up and bite ya on the a**!

(h.h!)
j.t.

 

[Mr.Bill]

The F70 only goes up to #65 on the discrimination scale, but at this point it only discriminates out up to, and including zinc pennies. With a setting of #65 it will eliminate aluminum trash also.

Wheaties will still come threw (#73).

By using the notch adjustment, you will be able to put back in nickels.

Best results using "Slow" mode.

Perhaps you may want to check out a F70