Anyone still rocking their f5? A keeper?

[juit]

Anyone still using their f5? Im a new f5 user , want to know tips tricks and if you still use it what do you recomend me to use it
I bought on flebay a f5 with no coil, called fisher & teknetics and they told me to put a greek series coil

 

[REVIER]

F5 bible...tips and tricks.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?37,2376468
Many use these, love them and do well.

 

[RLOH]

I have been using a F5 for the last year and a half and I believe it to be a very capable detector. I had one four years ago with the stock concentric coil. My present F5 has the 11 inch dd coil. Many prefer the concentric coil, but in my three and four bar ground, the 11 inch dd gives me slightly more depth. The dd does struggle with rusty bottle caps, but the well know practice of lifting the coil while slowly scanning will cause the numbers to jump erractically. I have found more silver coins with the F5 than my other detectors during this period. Some very deep, in the 8 inch plus range. After many hours in my test bed, I have found my magic numbers to be sens 85, threshold 0, and three tones. If emi is present, I have found by dropping the sens to 70 and the threshold to -2 will give adequate performance, but not up to my other settings. I absolutely love the screen inter face. The combination of knobs and pads is something all manufacturers should use.

 

[Electricfrontporch]

Had one I bought when I first started detecting.
Was a capable machine but I didn't jive with it as a newbie.
Almost wish I didn't sell it because I think I've learned enough now
that I'd feel more comfortable with the extra control.
Worked out though, I paid $245 at a pawn shop.....
It sold on eBay for $360...almost paid for my Compadre!

Noah

 

[still looking 52]

I have been using a F5 for the last year and a half and I believe it to be a very capable detector. I had one four years ago with the stock concentric coil. My present F5 has the 11 inch dd coil. Many prefer the concentric coil, but in my three and four bar ground, the 11 inch dd gives me slightly more depth. The dd does struggle with rusty bottle caps, but the well know practice of lifting the coil while slowly scanning will cause the numbers to jump erractically. I have found more silver coins with the F5 than my other detectors during this period. Some very deep, in the 8 inch plus range. After many hours in my test bed, I have found my magic numbers to be sens 85, threshold 0, and three tones. If emi is present, I have found by dropping the sens to 70 and the threshold to -2 will give adequate performance, but not up to my other settings. I absolutely love the screen inter face. The combination of knobs and pads is something all manufacturers should use.

Also I'd like to add about the moduated sound on deep targets is a nice feature, most of our silver targets are below 4" now and the F5 has a faint/ far away sound to let you know the Target is deep. Also when my F 5 says a coin is a certain Depth it is usually real close to that depth.

 

[juit]

Why didnt this have been implemented in new detectors? Looks kinda neat

 

[RLOH]

I forgot to mention the faint, far away sound of deep coins. I have mentioned this before with the F5 and it's First Texas brother the Omega. You better have a good set of phones to be able to hear the deep coins. Once you dig a couple, you can really recognize deep coins. I have a couple of friends who refuse to use headphones. I could not hear a 7 or 8 inch deep coin without them.

 

[juit]

Yes i have headphones

 

[dfmike]

This is arguable but to me, the F5 has the best interface display of any VLF detector out there. All the important info is there and you don't have to have a magnifying glass to see it clearly. This is not mentioned often but very few detectors have a live ground phase readout in discrimination mode that gives you an actual number, not just bars and up and down arrows like the Omega or the F44 that I had. The ground we have here changes a lot from area to area and this feature is important to me. It gives me a good idea if my ground balance is correct and when to do another one.

About headphones: I've learned the hard way that some will make you miss targets because the sound is too muffled/frequency range too limited. The ones I had were free with the detector and worth about 30$. I switched to another brand that cost me about triple that and have no regrets. Comfort is better and the sound is clear which allows me to hear subtle changes in tonality. It's an extra expense that is well worth it.

 

[juit]

I learned the hard way with my cz5 i didnt used headphones because i was trusting the top speaker after a while i went with my cz6 and found tons of stuff i didnt heard with my cz5

 

[still looking 52]

Using a detector without head phones is like driving a car without power steering, you can do it but it's difficult. Like Mike was saying about the expense of head phones, a good set is going to cost you but it's we'll worth it.

 

[juit]

Totally agree!