F75 Vs F75 LTD pros-cons

[Goldstrike]

[size=medium][size=medium]Hi all,
It may have been covered somewhere on the forum already but comparing the F75 and the F75 LTD unless I'm missing something, the differences I see are the 'cache mode' and the 'boost feature' that are installed on the LTD. It also has a faster processor on the LTD....is it really faster than the F75?
My questions are, is it worth the extra $200 or so (depending on where you shop) for those features in the LTD?......do those features really work well for you in the field? and if they do work that well, why do detectorists stay with the F75 and not graduate to the LTD? $200 isn't that much and both seem like excellent M.D.s but I want to get the better of the two!
Any advice is very much appreciated! H.H. to all.[size=medium][/size]

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

If extra depth is an advantage to you, YES then the LTD is worth the $. Seems to run quieter than the old F75 too.

 

[jim tn]

Well, I am one that did "graduate" from the F 75 to the LTD and for my type of hunting, I am glad I did. The LTD does seem to have a little bit more depth, but not enough to make a switch if depth is of primary concern. My LTD does seem to be less affected by emi and still has excellent depth when being cranked way down. I do find the LTD to hit coins on edge a little better, but the thing that really stands out for me and is very important is how it will hit targets at depth when having to swing the coil over 4, 5, and even 6" tall grass and brush. In the B P mode I have dug numerous targets in brush and tall grass that in the B P mode got a good solid audio and switching to the de mode would get nothing more then a scratchy tic, if even that on occasion. This is an important feature (air gap) to me as many of the sites I hunt are not being mowed/maintained like they were just a few years ago. Anyway....HH jim tn

 

[gmanlight]

I did 2 years on reg F75 and got F75 SE last fall . Not much run time on it but glad i got it.
I am not always the most focused hunter and loss of hearing to boot.
In a hunt last fall a hunting bud ID a soft repeatable target with his Omega
and called me over to listen. Sweeping over a 8in deep wheat it sounded like it was 3 inches deep.
With 2 others standing there i unplugged my head phones and raised the coil.
4,5 then 6inches off the ground and still banging loud and clear.
A jaw dropping eye popping moment for all.

 

[Goldstrike]

[size=medium]Thanks all for the advice!! the LTD looks better and better and I'll probably settle for that, partly because of the depth but also all the other qualities it has![/size]

 

[Barney II]

Hi Goldstrike----Glad to hear about your pending decision. I have been doing some tests on the F75LTD with regards to finding gold. The deep process is awesome, make no mistake about it ---you will find good and small gold with it. When prospecting for gold you shouldn't have to worry too much about emi but this unit in dp really hold back the emi from power lines, cell phones ---it does pick up a few of those. I worked under one tower( in the snow--ha ha ) and did not have a problem----then tried another one and had a problem---not big but a problem, easily worked around it though. If you are sniping for gold in the rocks etc. I would use the smaller coil as it prevent most ground noise to the point of there being none. Good luck to you in the gold fields Oh, your question----get the f75LTD Also Fisher has just come out with a 15 inch round coil for the 75's and the 70---won't be available until April. That should really be great in bp but really in the cache. -----------------------------------Barney

 

[Goldstrike]

[size=medium]Barney, excellent advice which is very much appreciated! I fly to England next week for 3 weeks of serious metal detecting and I probably should have got the LTD way before now to get used to it before leaving!! I hope my Minelabs are up to digging up all those coins, gold and silver plus relics I hope to detect!! I hope to be posting some great finds very soon!! H.H. everyone!! [/size]

 

[Barney II]

Hey there Goldstrike, that is going to be one super trip. I wouldn't worry too much about getting used to it---the best way is actually using it and you will have three weeks to enjoy. It will take a day or so to know this one from end to end and at the end of three weeks you will be the expert of experts. One thing that you will enjoy and probably wont realize it is the weight and balance of this detector when compared to others---just super great. If you have the time --go to the AMDS forum and send a personal message to Steve Herscbach, the owner, asking him for any tips. He spent some weeks in England doing what you will be doing and he had the F75ltd. Good luck to you and have a great time---be prepared for a detailed report----lol lol Barney

 

[sgoss66]

Goldstrike --

Have fun, can't wait to hear about it. When you hunt England for "gold," I assume you are talking strictly gold coins and jewelry, right? There's no major deposits of placer gold, or lode gold in the UK is there?

Hey Barney II -- did Steve Herschbach ever make a post about how he did with the F75 LTD in England? I saw him mention that he was going to go, but I don't think I ever saw him discuss what he found, and how he liked the detector...

Steve

 

[Barney II]

Hi Steve, Steve H. posted some time back that he had found some antiquities, some hammered silver I guess and some other. Over there I guess if you find something of importance or close to that you required to turn it in and have the ant. forum decide if it is of any importance . If so they will pay you for the item and keep it or they may return it to you if that is what they decide. Steve did have one or two items like this. I only report this as a recollection of what was said... I think that would really be a great hunt----------Don

 

[Daniel Tn]

In my defense, I did get one of the first batches of the camo LTDs so maybe I had a bad one. But then again the others I saw at the DIV were acting the same way too, so maybe not. I had a lot of people come to me after I did the F75 video and taught the 2 classes...any time they had a question about the F75 they'd come to me which I didn't mind but I got to see a lot of different machines. I haven't seen any of the black edition LTDs so maybe they fixed some things about it.

Anyway, I was one of the few that didn't like the LTD. Sure, the boost mode made a difference in depth when you could use it, but I never really found a place I could use it. The one I had was very erratic in the boost mode and wouldn't balance very well in severely mineralized ground. I had it in 3 different states...TN, VA, and GA. I NEVER found a place I could run it without problems in the boost mode, UNLESS you backed the sensitivity W-A-Y down...then it was to the point of "what was the use of running it in boost mode"? It was sort of like the old analogy of running your high beams in thick fog. That's how you have to treat highly mineralized iron dirt like what I have. I just think the boost mode was too much for it. In good soil, it's like a dark night with no fog...the high beams are best so the boost mode would be real beneficial in benign soil. Up in Culpeper, VA it wouldn't balance at all in the boost modes. In the regular modes it was okay but you still had to GB every few feet...which is what I had to do with the regular F75 as well.

Maybe they have worked on their circuitry since the first batch of camo LTDs.

 

[gmanlight]

From what i have read Culpeper VA . will give many detectors fits to a point of useless.
I have a black unit ,new last fall and run boost most of the time with Senc of 80 and Disc of 6 or
hotter most of the time. Half the time i am a stones throw from power lines.

 

[swampratvabch]

I too read all... and word is i don't want to miss anything.... I use my F75 at sen.99 JE mode and disc 0 or 1 and notch 1 usually not ever more than disc at 6 I do play with sen...but never in the 70's usually mid 80s or higher...So if i run hot all the time will the LTD be that muck better and they say its stable too... any thoughts you guys/gals may have....

 

[sgoss66]

Thanks for the info, Don (on the Herschbach hunt).

Steve

 

[Barney II]

Hi Daniel Tn and swampratvabch---First of all I am in the north where when I gb out it is at 80 to 88, iron country. I have only been doing all my experimenting when the ground is froze---6 to 10 inches down. I use my detect garden and I have been working with an MXT and a GMT in the past. I would first look around to see who was next to me with a PI or running a high freq. machine. The PI's will bother your 75. Which mode were you running the bp in--disc or all metal--. I have been running in all metal ---sensitivity at 80 and the threshold at -2 or to keep in somewhat quiet.--rather than lowering sens.---audio pitch as low as it will go---my hearing issues-- the frequency set at F1 the lowest one--helps to get away from mineralization and emi , that should take you out of the other 75s as most will run as high as they can go ---I imagine--to get get the really deep---your fog issue comes into play here. Then I slow my swing down to a crawl---sometimes go to stat. in the all metal but you lose the threshold control when you go into that. The 75 ltd that I have is the black one and it was made in Jan of this year. Yes, from what I have read it seems that they must have done some tweaking as I do not have the problems that others with the older machines .

Daniiel---I guess I will get a chance to see that Virginia dirt problem. I am going to Buchingham County in Virginia and right in the middle of the county---by Sharon Church road. No one has ever been on this property detecting and from my research I don't know how much this ground was used during the Civil War but I guess I will find out. Then we are only few miles from some old gold mines that we want to hunt--my friend is getting some nice gold in the river nearby with his sluice and dredge. Would you have any clue as to the type of gound that there is around there??? I have working my butt off trying to get everything fiured out for Virginia and also for Ganes Creek in Alaska in June----these detectors do operate in below zero temps---lol lol


Just to jump back to the start for a minute-----I have watched some of the videos coming out of Cullpepper and I am seeing MXTs and even some DFXs and of course the 75s and there should be no problem matching an MXT to a 75 in this ground----in fact both machines are engineered by the same person The one thing that I am reading and have noted that there is less emi in the bp mode and the je is too sensitive. If I did not have the bp and cache I would run in the pf as it seems to be a little more forgiving the the rest of the modes. Now---this is all with my ground--my machine, I would be very happy to be corrected on any matter and will be the first inline to take anyother suggestions or corrections---just my experieces---not trying to be a smarty pants----lol lol Don

 

[Daniel Tn]

My first trip to VA was with the regular F75. I done rather well with it up there; mainly because I have very similar dirt to what they have up there. So basically I am use to the fact that detectors see targets in the ground as IRON in this stuff. Go check out some of my videos with the F75 and you'll see what I'm referring to....I'm "tnbackroads" on YouTube. The only way I can describe the dirt there, is like having an old piece of rusty tin from a barn...and then throwing a coin underneath it...and trying to tune your detector to just find the coin. Don't pay attention to what number your F75 is ground balancing at...give me the FE meter reading on it; that's what tells how much iron content is in the ground. When you peg it at the top of the scale or one notch down...then you're in some pretty bad stuff and that's what it does here and up in that northern part of VA.

All VLF machines will work in the dirt...IF the operator knows how to do it. If you run ANY discrimination at all, you wont be one of the people finding stuff in it. In my dirt down here, a Civil War bullet will start reading as iron when it is about 4 inches in the ground. You can still get shallower bullets to somewhat give a good ID and hit decent but once you pass the 4" mark, everything starts reading as iron and will give an occasional "bounce" up into the tab/zinc range on the F-75. I demonstrated this in my first video; by running the F75 over a bullet that I hadn't dug up yet...and hopping from disc mode to motion all metal mode just to show how bad the discrimination mode was killing the response.

My best settings were as follows:

Motion All Metal
JE Mode
SENS 80-90...where-ever it wasn't so erratic you couldn't use it

With the MXT, the user has to REALLY know their machine to be able to do any good with it. You wont be getting any good ID numbers on it for sure in the bad ground. As a matter of fact, this is why most of them have gone to the TDIs now. The MXT will read the bullets as HOT ROCK....the problem is....that it will do that just about everywhere so in some cases you'd be better off just digging blind and hoping you dig up something in your effort. Why do you think so many folks just start hut digging or looking for bottles by digging random holes? Cause their machines ain't working well for them!! Of all the VLF machines I've used...and I've used a BUNCH...the F75/T2 platform is right there at the top. Only one other one tops it that I've used as far as VLFs go. Now when you step into the PI machine range...it's a different ball game. I've got the Minelab GPX 5000 right now and there ain't NOTHING can touch it as far as depth and discrimination in the iron dirt.