more on the Omega?

[blacktoe]

Anymore more comments on the Omega? I saw where more have ordered it from past threads.

Buckeye Brad and Shenandoah Digger. How are you doing with yours?

What kind of depths are you getting fairly reliable TID on objects? I know the ground where you live makes a difference. I live in southeast Ga. and have a lot of orange clay around here.

I am still waiting for the new coils before making a decision (and money lol.) I think when the DD's become available it will tighten up the ID as the sweet spot will be bigger. I sure do hope this will not be like the T2 was with promise of a new coil but taking forever before it was available.

I am hoping for reviews from different areas of the country in different kinds of dirt. When I buy my next detector it will have to last me for awhile and it sounds like the Omega might have the horsepower to stay with for awhile. I want a detector than can be cranked up when I want raw power and depth and can be turned down and run stable with good ID for say 6" depth when just park and totlot coinshooting. Is this too much to ask? I hope not. I like my F4 ok but it lacks in both areas.

I am seeing where the Omega is getting 13" on airtests. Do you still get a TID at this depth? Andy says 11" on a freshly buried Euro. That I would have to see for myself. Are those American inches or German inches?

I think the expanded iron range would be a help as I am spotting more old homeplaces in the country around here and it might be interesting to detect some of them. Of course right now I am staying out of the woods. I saw a picture in a newspaper 20 miles from here where they killed a 9' 1" diamond back that weighed 97# . Heck, I am almost afraid to go in our outbuildings.

Please keep the posts on the Omega coming!

blacktoe

 

[mikezap]

The omega we bought for my girlfriend came in thursday, hopefully we will get a chance to take it out sunday. We're planning on going to her grandparents house, its over a 100 yrs old...will let ya know more then!

 

[Elton]

a 9' 1" diamond back that weighed 97# . " That would do it for me"...............maybe forever..

 

[blacktoe]

Thanks Mikezap. I am looking forward to your thoughts.

Elton, that is a scary snake. He came upon it swimming in a water tank. They have a rattlesnake roundup close by every spring. Hundreds of them are brought in. I stay out of the woods and sandhills when it gets warm. I am hard of hearing and probably wouldn't even here one.


blacktoe

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

In your soil SD will probably have more pertinent data. I still love mine and use it most of the time over here even though I have a T-2, F-75, SE, etc. I wouldn't be doing that if its depth was lacking to any significant degree compared to the ones I just mentioned. I seldom run it over 65 so there's significantly more smoke to be had if I felt I needed it at the cost of some chatter to sort through. Its just a great "bring it all together with extremely functional features" easy to run detector for my usual haunts. I've used it about equally on coin and relic hunts. ID depth is apparently one of those "refined" aspects of the Omega. It ID's at almost it's max depth. Now at those fringe depths, the ID is somewhat jumpy but it easily gives you a real good indication of the target by the spread of the numbers once you get used to how a certain type target acts at the different depths. Again, personally I like the Omega's (and Gamma's) audio better than the higher frequency "cousins" and that's saying something because I'm a huge fan and user of the F-75. When I'm cruising', I hear good targets mixed in the junk easier with the Omega especially with both running in four tone which I do a lot on coin hunts. The 40 number resolution spread in the ferrous area is definitely nice even though IMO it's not critical per se. If you saw Mike Hillis's F-5/Omega report he mentioned observing some interesting and possibly unique ways the Omega seems to "group" various types and sizes of ferrous targets as well as some non-ferrous ones that are being drug down numerically when co-located with dominating iron. There seems to be something to this. I need to do some more looking into that but it becomes evident pretty quickly as I noticed it on the Gamma last winter after not much time logged. I'm looking forward to checking into this a lot closer the first time I get a chance to hunt the Omega in really hot VA ground since most of the targets read as a ferrous range ID no matter what they are. It'll be interesting seeing if it in fact does act differently than the T-2.

Bottom line is this.....Personal detecting wants and needs are widely variable and given that, I'll never try to assume, nor should anyone else, that my own personal detecting experiences can be some sort of valid shortcut for someone wanting to make a choice around which new detector to buy. Everyone will need to ultimately do the work themselves and yes...take some chances that may or may not pan out around detector selection. Having said that, if you want my opinion, FWIW, given you're wanting to upgrade from an F-4, which I have owned and used, and not being sure about spending the bucks to confirm whether or not the T-2 or F-75 is justified, The Omega should fill the bill better than anything else in that price range and even somewhat beyond.

 

[blacktoe]

Thank you Buckeye Brad,

I understand what you are saying about personal experience and opinions. That is why I am not going to jump into anything too quick. I am hoping enough reports from different parts of the country will help.

One reason I am looking at the latest and greatest is I think in the midrange detectors group it is going to be mainly improvements in software and not as much hardware. First Texas does have some brilliant software engineers and the Gamma, Omega are the latest. The F5 led the way and Tek refined the platform even more. It looks like FT does listen to users and make refinements. I wonder just what will come when they refine the T2 and F75 more?

blacktoe

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

With my little experience on the Omega so far, I can tell you it works well in hot ground, similar to the T2 and F75. Now if I can ever find an area where I can crank up the sensitivity I think I could find what it truly is capable of, depth wise. It's good to know that sensitivity is not easily maxed out like many other detectors. I like it very well so far, but with it being bass tournament season, most of my free time is spent on the water.

 

[blacktoe]

mikezap? Hopefully you are too busy counting all your finds with the Omega lol.

blacktoe

 

[blacktoe]

Mikezap, Any word on the Omega yet?

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

For what it's worth, I had my Omega at my farm this weekend and hunted an old house site for about an hour. I have a 10 x 10 foot area marked off that I've been digging all the signals out to try to find the good stuff. I got two good high tones in disc mode and dug a liberty quarter and a wheat cent. My T2 would not read these as good signals, but the Omega did. Again I say, for what it's worth.

 

[mikezap]

Heya blacktoe! I'll tell you what I thought about the Omega and you can take it however you want I use the t2 exclusively and I love it, I really cant see myself using anything else except maybe an etrac (had an explorer pro b4). I bought the Omega for my girlfriend to replace the whites m6 that she had..she thought the m6 was a bit heavy and liked the way the Omega looked and we knew it was lighter. I put about 2 hours total on the Omega before I handed my girlfriend the reigns. In those 2 hours here are my thoughts. Machine was very light, almost to light. The headphone mount on the control panel definitely was not for me, didn't like it. The machine air tested great, but I didn't feel that in the soil i was getting the same depth. (ground balance in the mid 60s). The machine really does act like an analog machine with the tones getting much quieter the deeper the target. Separation was good (girlfriend pulled 3 clad coins out of a hole with 2 gigantic rusty tent nail/stake things, though Im not sure if she dug the hole because of the signal from those or the coins haha.) The only real "test" i put it through was a quarter buried in my yard specifically for this test at 6 inches. I tested both the t2 and the omega on it. The t2 would give a very nice signal at a sensitivity of only 65. The omega gave a "decent" signal at a sensitivity of 80. Though i should note that the omega was still very stable at the 80 range as long as you had the coil to the ground, it only seems to get unstable once you are actually digging and the coil is not pointed down. I think this machine could be very good in the hands of an experienced detectorist that will take the time to learn the machine from the ground up. My girlfriend comes out with me maybe once every 2 weeks, she knows what she is doing, but she looses interest fast if shes not finding coins lol. With that in mind I think the m6 was a better choice for her. My general thoughts are these, they should have made this machine for the 11' dd coil that comes on the t2, or f75. That 10' slim coil makes it so that you have to overlap your swings consistently or you will loose targets (my limited experience anyway). The build quality was perdy good except that the display kinda moved from side to side, maybe it just wasnt tight, i dunno. The machine is super light and easy to swing, and looks great! I know some more coils are suppose to be on the way for this line, and that would be a big plus. Would I replace my t2 with the Omega? Not a chance. And here is one more thing I would like to add...First Texas is a good company, they put out some good stuff, but their quality control seems to be lacking. I think I have one of the "hotter" t2s, but last year i had one of the "dud" f75s...So who knows, the omega we got could be a good one or could be sub par. One more thing, the omega falls on its side just as much if not more than the t2 These are only my personal experiences with the omega in a very very short time span, and I do not claim to be an expert on all things metal detecting. I would rate this machine on a scale of 1-10 as a 7.5.

Mike

 

[blacktoe]

Thanks to all that have replied. It looks like it is now up to me to make up my mind. At the moment I am going thru detector withdrawal. I sent my F4 off Friday. I tried using my Ace 250 backup but the belltone now drives me crazy. I hope FT fixes my F4 quick. When the F4 gets back it looks like the Ace will be for sale. I still feel like the DD for the Omega will make quite a difference in it and the F5.

blacktoe