Dig-a-holic said:
I noticed that I don't see many used F22's or F44's on 3bay. Is that good or bad? I saw Scannerguys F44 depth test and the F44 he used seemed really weak. That video could have hurt the sales of them. My F22 seems pretty strong. Found a silver dime on first hunt. It can hit 10" quarters with 11" DD coil in air test.
still looking 52 said:
Your right about not hearing much about these two detectors, I've been on this forum for over 4 years now and I can remember only a hand full of times anyone has mentioned them.
You could probably get a F5 for close to the same money, that's what I use and it's a great machine, it loves silver.
First off don't believe everything you see in vids, all dirt is different and many put out vids without ever having much experience In the tool they are reviewing.
I have seen many vids, some by very experienced hunters, about machines I use and know well that are total failures...with settings that I would never have used and professing knowledge they don't have using a specific tool for only a few hours.
A joke, just because you have years of decades and experience doesn't mean you magically totally understand everything about a new detector without spending a decent amount of time with it...I don't care who you are or who you think you are.
There is a vid out there and has been for years from a guy comparing an F2 to an Ace 250 and the F2 was pitiful, couldn't lock on anything, couldn't pick up a quarter at 2" ...he declared the Ace much better.
What the idiot neglected to tell anyone was this was the same F2 he dunked In a lake 2 weeks before, (which worked fine at the time), and drowned it.
He killed the thing, it wouldn't power on and he thought it was over but he let the thing dry for about a week and it came back on.
He thought it was fine so that is the one he used In the video....never mentioned the swim It took, though.
It was obvious to anyone that used and F2 and most everyone that had any common sense something was seriously and majorly wrong with this thing and yet he leaves the vid up so any newbie wandering by would watch it and get a seriously flawed information if they were looking for honest, truthful facts about this great detector.
Totally irresponsible behavior In my opinion, content like this should totally be banned from the internet but we all know that will never happen.
Go to that video you mentioned, don't watch the vid, go look at the comments...he does not come off well at all.
As a matter of fact he was told he had no clue by many and was doing a big disservice to the hobby and specifically this detector.
Didn't change much, he still left it up there and he still sees no issue with doing that.
Another know it all that doesn't know much, about the F44, anyway.
Go watch other vids with better reviewers, there are plenty out there that show this thing for what it really is, can adjust it correctly and can but depths this guy can only dream about.
As far as depth comparisons that also could be a joke.
The depth I get his In my detectors is about half of what I used to but when I lived in another state with much better soil.
Just normal In this hobby.
In the past the entry level Fishers had more presence, when I got the F2 there was buzz about it all over the forums and that continued for years.
At that time there weren't many detectors that we could pick from in the 2-$250 range, the Ace 250, F2, the Euro Teks, a couple of Bounty Hunters, maybe the Delta although recovery speed in that one back then was a bit slow.
All were capable, none had any higher end features including ground balance.
Also most of the rest of the market was higher end, mid level went from the $400 range on up...mostly.
The Fisher line went from the $200 F2, the F4 was $399, (ridiculous, it is an F2 with GB in all metal only for an extra $200???), the F5 which is the first major step into higher end features for $599, the F70 $699-$799, and the flagship F75 was $999 and up.
Even though it wasn't long ago it was definitely a different era and time, there were 3 definite levels for the most part entry, mid and high end.
Cut to today...all the lines are blurred.
Manufacturers have added many lower end tools with more features, and benefits to those features, than ever before and prices have come down across the board for many older existing models.
The F22 and F44 replaced the F2 and F4 with more features, I assume the technology and programming has also been advanced since the original F2 and F4 were designed and released.
I had higher end detectors but I chose to run with the F2 for 3 years because it just massively produced for me in coins and jewelry.
In my world ya gotta go with what works...always.
The new lower end F series seem to be even more capable, it is not out of the question in my mind that there are many out there that have them, love them and don't see a big need to change...ever.
There might not be a while lot of resales out there because they just aren't put up for sale that often because they are being used.
Then there is what I believe the main reason you don't see a whole lot of talk and traction about entry level models from most companies anymore or at least not as much as there used to be...look at the prices out there nowadays.
The $2-$350 range is crowded with many very capable detectors, no longer do you have to spend over $400 to get GB and a lot of other very helpful features so instead of a small group of cheaper detectors we now have a larger group to choose from and that dilutes the pool and expands the number of detectors people could possibly talk about.
When there were only a handful of detectors in the entry level they all got mentioned more.
But the real reason you don't see as many talking about the lower end as much as they used to is pricing....we now live in a world where prices have been lowered so there are many more feature packed options in both the entry and lower mid level and price ranges have been squeezed closer together than ever.
In the past you spent 2-$250 and the next level jump was hundreds more, $300 or so just to get to the next level of capability.
A major jump for most.
Now we have flagship F75s that were cut in half to $500, the F70 Patriot was also brought down more than half to $399, the Land Ranger Pro
has been found in sale for way under $300 in the past, Teknetics Gammas I see are down close to the $300 range and there are even more detectors out there in these entry, lower mid level price points that are way more capable than ever before.
Like I said a whole new world.
In the past many would aim for the entry level and maybe might have wanted more but did not want to spend the money to get there at the time.
Now as little as $50 can mean a huge jump in features and performance...less, sometimes.
For the newbie to think about going from a $200 detector to $250 to get more is not such a big jump, at $100 there could be another huge step up in performance and features.
The Patriot is world class and definitely deserves to be called a flagship, ask anyone that owns one and actually spent a decent amount of time learning to understand it.
A few years ago $399 got you an F4, now it can get you this thing which is a completely different world.
I believe more that are entering this hobby are coming in at higher levels than just entry because they can and see the logic in doing so.
Less actual hunters buying F22s and F24s because they are opting to go a little higher than they used to because there are so many more choices now.
Entry level detectors are still huge out there so don't get me wrong, I assume like most products the cheaper ones sell in much higher volumes and probably always will.
I would love to have just a tiny bit of the action FTP gets from just their Bounty Hunter line...that number is probably shockingly high.
The thing is people that join these forums are not your typical hunters like the ones that don't hang out here, the ones that to go Wal-Mart and buy cheap detectors and use them sparingly with kids or by themselves and don't know much not do they ever learn much in the future because they have no shops near them, no salesmen in big box stores that know anything worthwhile and have no clue there is a huge amount of info and help in these forums.
They play around in the hobby and either have a little fun but don't go much further than that of just get frustrated and bail completely.
The ones that come here ask questions, get a better idea of what they want, make a better and more informed choices because they see the logic.
Sometimes they pay more than they originally planned but it usually turns out fine because they took the time to consider all options...many they didn't think of before or even knew about.
So there are many great entry level detectors out there now but there are even more that are very close to entry level prices but have even more and better features.
There are plenty out there that talk about the F22 and F44, they are on Facebook and comment on review sites and there are so many more and better vids about them but you just never notice them.
Here there used to be so much more talk about pure entry level detectors when options were few, I have an F2 thread on one forum that is one of the largest threads anywhere with 35 pages, 1,300 comments and close to 300,000 views...yea, we used to talk a lot more about these lower end units in the past.
Now I think the forum dwellers that used to be pure entry level buyers have moved up a notch and are getting more upline in their choices so they tend to talk more about that.
Look at the different subforums here...plenty seem to be talking about the F75s and Patriots, there is still a huge amount that seem to be getting an Ace In one form or another and check out the BH forum....plenty of fans of their products still and there will be more because there are a few models they make that are nowhere near the low end performance they got a reputation for being when all they had was old tech, cheap prices and low end performance.
The bottom line is even though there is less talk and hype and reviews about entry level products they are still out there but time just a little more camouflaged than they used to be because of all the extra talk about everything else, the choices you have in all price ranges nowadays plus all the extra hype concerning all the newer ones and foreign manufactures many use now.
Talk about one specific model especially in the lower end class can sometimes just be lost in the shuffle.
My Google Foo is powerful, give me a detector name and I am sure I can find all kinds of reviews, comments and discussions about most anything out there...all you have to do is know where to look.
As little as a few years ago things were different so we talked about the 3 distinct levels available, now, as I said the lines are blurred so there is just a lot more to talk about.
