I have owned and used both of these fine machines and am one of a few people in the position to be able to answer that question.
In '08 I purchased a Garrett's Infinium LS and hit the water running. Like most new LS owners I had a tough time dealing with the "learning curve" so often talked about with this machine.
The primary issues are its amazing sensitivity and having to manually ground ballance the detector.
After a few hunts I was able to start making sense of what the macine was telling me and started to find gold rings. The LS is a chatty machine that constantly emmits little chirps of sound as it is swung from sided to side. As someone who is sensitive to sounds, I had a problem with that, but managed to live with it, because I was finding gold!
I learned to think of these sounds as, "Infinium's happily talking to itself while it was finding gold for me."
I had to send it to Garrett's twice during the short time I owned it, once only days after I bought it and later, just before I sold it.I had several coils for the machine, my favorite being the 8"Mono.
It is heavier than the DF, needs constant tweaking of controls where I hunt and is chatty, all of which I had a problem with.
Another issue was its being so upset every time a plane, train or boat passed within a mile of where I hunted. Several times during a hunt I would have to be annoyed be this interference and would need to adjust the signal frequency of the LS to be able to continue hunting.
What made this a real problem was hunting in a place where all of these radio signals are very common and fairly constant.
In spite of all these negatives, I learned to really like the LS and in a couple of years of use found enough gold to pay for the machine and to assure me that even if I ever found a machine that better suited my needs I would keep the LS as back-up, even though I still have my two beloved old XL-500 PIs waiting in the wings if needed.
Enter the Dual Field.
I had been reading Craig's posts and listening to others including Clive for a while about this machine and decided to try one out and learn what all the talk was about.
It has been one of my better metal detecting decisions!
The machine is light weight, easy to use and has an amazing battery life!!
It has many more hours on it now than the LS and has never been returned to White's!
There is a pleasant, constant threshold tone that doesn't annoy me with chatter and even though it responds to passing trains etc., like most if not all PI machines, it isn't so bad that I am greatly bothered by it.
The icing on the cake is that the DF finds gold!!!!!!!!!
It, like my LS, has payed for itself several times over and continues to be my tool of choice when I water hunt.
The automatic ground ballance is a blessing where I hunt and the DF has none of the annoying features that were a constant bother with the LS.
In all fairness to the Infinium, it is a specialized machine with a broad range of uses.
It just didn't fit my needs as well as the DF.
After learning for myself what the DF was all about I decided I would sell the Infinium and buy a Sovereign GT so I could learn what that machine is all about and it may take me a while, because I am primarilly a water hunter and prefer PI machines.
Now my Hunting Friends, I hope this helps you to know more about the Infinium and the Dual Field.
GL&HH Fellow Hunters,
CJ
In '08 I purchased a Garrett's Infinium LS and hit the water running. Like most new LS owners I had a tough time dealing with the "learning curve" so often talked about with this machine.
The primary issues are its amazing sensitivity and having to manually ground ballance the detector.
After a few hunts I was able to start making sense of what the macine was telling me and started to find gold rings. The LS is a chatty machine that constantly emmits little chirps of sound as it is swung from sided to side. As someone who is sensitive to sounds, I had a problem with that, but managed to live with it, because I was finding gold!
I learned to think of these sounds as, "Infinium's happily talking to itself while it was finding gold for me."
I had to send it to Garrett's twice during the short time I owned it, once only days after I bought it and later, just before I sold it.I had several coils for the machine, my favorite being the 8"Mono.
It is heavier than the DF, needs constant tweaking of controls where I hunt and is chatty, all of which I had a problem with.
Another issue was its being so upset every time a plane, train or boat passed within a mile of where I hunted. Several times during a hunt I would have to be annoyed be this interference and would need to adjust the signal frequency of the LS to be able to continue hunting.
What made this a real problem was hunting in a place where all of these radio signals are very common and fairly constant.
In spite of all these negatives, I learned to really like the LS and in a couple of years of use found enough gold to pay for the machine and to assure me that even if I ever found a machine that better suited my needs I would keep the LS as back-up, even though I still have my two beloved old XL-500 PIs waiting in the wings if needed.
Enter the Dual Field.
I had been reading Craig's posts and listening to others including Clive for a while about this machine and decided to try one out and learn what all the talk was about.
It has been one of my better metal detecting decisions!
The machine is light weight, easy to use and has an amazing battery life!!
It has many more hours on it now than the LS and has never been returned to White's!
There is a pleasant, constant threshold tone that doesn't annoy me with chatter and even though it responds to passing trains etc., like most if not all PI machines, it isn't so bad that I am greatly bothered by it.
The icing on the cake is that the DF finds gold!!!!!!!!!
It, like my LS, has payed for itself several times over and continues to be my tool of choice when I water hunt.
The automatic ground ballance is a blessing where I hunt and the DF has none of the annoying features that were a constant bother with the LS.
In all fairness to the Infinium, it is a specialized machine with a broad range of uses.
It just didn't fit my needs as well as the DF.
After learning for myself what the DF was all about I decided I would sell the Infinium and buy a Sovereign GT so I could learn what that machine is all about and it may take me a while, because I am primarilly a water hunter and prefer PI machines.
Now my Hunting Friends, I hope this helps you to know more about the Infinium and the Dual Field.
GL&HH Fellow Hunters,
CJ
