Omega 8500 Not what i hoped for

[onemoreswing]

Well i waited a long time for this and i am numb...it is not an Omega 8000 at all, more of a tweaked F44 ?

First the positives, No EMI issues at all, the Deep modes will greatly benefit those in mild soils with concentric coils (i put the big teardrop coil off an F44 on it and it is hot on silver and high conductors), was getting an id number on deep test garden targets with no tone ?, the new audio options are great !

Now the obvious drawbacks on the unit, old Greek series coils do not perform properly on the 8500 i am talking about FTP coils(i tried every one of them) i do not know about any aftermarket coils as i have always been against them ! like i said the large teardrop coil off the F44 worked great and the 10" conc. stock coil i received on the 8500 worked well, this seems more like an new F series detector than the old 8000/G2 platform? , the biggest let down is the independent thresh hold control, the synchronized thresh/gain on the 8000 was perfect as i have done very well nugget hunting with the 8000 paired with the 5"DD coil (1 gram nuggets at 5" deep in hot soil were easily hit) which leads to the next weakness, the 8500 will not lock on a nickle,(the F44 is poor on nickles also) the 8000 was always solid on nickles these lower conductors are important to me because that's where the money is on the beach RINGS!!, i dont know if the old Greek coils are supposed to work on the 8500 but the 5" DD could barely see a 1 gram nugget ? I have used the big teardrop coil off the F44 on my 8000 and it worked but threw some id numbers off a bit and really threw iron off, lots of high 90's instead of 1-40 where it should be?

Overall i need to hear from you guys in milder soils to learn about the deep modes, i am in 77-86 GB soil, and i need to try a new 11"DD coil for the 8500.
The 8000 is faster than the 8500 for sure, and the deep modes require a slower swing speed, my Fisher 1270 is way deeper.
The 8500 is not a replacement for the 8000, just a different beast you need to own both !
I know there will be negative comments on nugget hunting with these detectors but trust me the 8000 is damn good at it because it is great in iron and will ground balance anywhere and excels in hot ground, remember it was made before the G2, and with that the T2 is the Greatest VLF for nugget hunting ever ! bar none !
Any and all comments are wanted, thank you

 

[detectingMO]

Hmm...I'll know more tomorrow but I suspect something is not quite right given your coil experience. The coil line is still exactly the same as the 8000 for the 8500.

 

[Hightone]

..it is not an Omega 8000 at all, more of a tweaked F44 ?

the 8500 will not lock on a nickle,(the F44 is poor on nickles also) In my opinion, VLF technology has pretty much hit it's limit in terms of depth, years ago.

Preaching to the choir. I've been saying that all along, as my LRP is the same way. The same process. I sent a video performance to Craig and to Jorge months ago before the new F series debuted. It shows a quarter on the ground hitting 10 out of 10 high tone silver, and a flat nickel hitting iron and everything but 5 cents periodically. I tried to tell them, but gave up after awhile thinking it was because it was a Bounty Hunter. I'm sorry you're experiencing the same thing on a higher priced unit. Maybe FTP will find the problem with a revision before it gets out of hand.

 

[detectingMO]

talking to other users I think something may be off. I hope not. I personally like the LRP better than the F44 and the F22 better than QDP all similar. My son has the digitek which is the QDP with 7" coil. Seems to do better on the nickels but still not Eurotek Pro or Omega 8000 like. Those are just as hot on nickels with depth and ID as they are on silver.

 

[horikindaguy]

New FT 'fiasco' in the making?

"old Greek series coils do not perform properly on the 8500 i am talking about FTP coils(i tried every one of them)"

I was thinking of getting an 8500 and using the 11" dd and 5x10 dd from my G2 on it.....

definitely on hold now.....hopefully Dave J. can look into this for us and post a response....this certainly doesn't sound good...I was really expecting some rave reviews...

 

[detectingMO]

New FT 'fiasco' in the making?

"old Greek series coils do not perform properly on the 8500 i am talking about FTP coils(i tried every one of them)"

I was thinking of getting an 8500 and using the 11" dd and 5x10 dd from my G2 on it.....

definitely on hold now.....hopefully Dave J. can look into this for us and post a response....this certainly doesn't sound good...I was really expecting some rave reviews...

FWIW The coil lineup is still the same for all greeks including the 8500. I'll have one in a couple hours and will test although all the coils I have for it besides a F44 and NEL Sharpshooter are coming with it. (3 coil pack)

I've used omega and eurotek coils on F22 and F44 and vise versa as they are all compatible. Unless something has changed in the last couple months dealers are unaware of.

 

[lytle78]

One guy with 6 posts - we probably need more data before folks start yelling "fiasco"

 

[D&P-OR]

Yep!-----Let's wait till a few 8500's get out in users hands & get a few reports before we start going "bannanas".-----No disrespect intended to the OP & I appreciate his report---but---let's get some more 8500 info also.

One guy with 6 posts - we probably need more data before folks start yelling "fiasco"

 

[detectingMO]

Bill_S and I will be running the Omega 8500 all day tomorrow. I'll try kick things off with a menu walk through video tonight if I have time.

 

[onemoreswing]

I'm just trying to save some people from blowing there money on a monkeyed up F44, i'm not just some guy with 6 posts i've heard of this gossip forum and avoided it because of wise guys like you ! I hunt in the field not at my desk ! So you go buy an 8500 and be let down, i would love to insult you some more but i have to get out and buy as many 8000's as i can because i have a feeling they will be very well sought after until their reintroduction in a couple years !

 

[Albert]

I for one appreciate your input as I myself was thinking of buying one. Now I'm just going to wait and see. I will however disagree on one thing. In my opinion the T2 is not as good at nugget hunting as the mxt bar non. But each to his own. Keep up the testing on the 8500. Want to know what else you are experiencing. Thanks. HH

 

[Furious T]

Looking forward to reading your report detectingMO. From what you have said, and what OMS has said, sounds as if something is not quite right.

 

[Mike Hillis]

The only thing a nickel is useful for is low conductive air testing. If you get decent depth on a nickel air test then you can expect decent depth on gold rings too. Other than that a nickel has no other comparison to gold rings. None.

Nickels are the one coin that I have found to defy all TID reliabilty once they are in the ground. I've seen them drop to foil and rise to tabs. I've even seen them react to high sensitivity and ground minerals and read as high as zinc cents. I've never seen that happen with a gold ring. Gold rings, even with good size crowns will pretty much hold id.

I learned early on that for some reason that I cannot explain, the nickel component of a nickel will not hold a steady stable TID and its a rare detector that can provide any kind of a lock on a nickel. Even my CZ's that were touted as nickel killers (CZ5, CZ70s, CZ3Ds) struggled with nickels.

That is the reason you see large nickel "windows or segments" on some detectors, the TID spread can be so large.

The Omega has a very narrow Nickel range segment, only 5 TID numbers wide. Easy for them to move out of that range and when you assign a specific tone to that range you can hear it fall out of it fast. Compare that to a high coin range tied to the high tone and it takes a lot of movement for a high tone coin to fall out of it. A Quarter has to drop past a dime an into the zinc range before you stop hearing a high tone.

Even my F19, which I have found a lot of nickels with seldom identified a nickel with what I air tested a nickel id to be. Blame the nickel in the nickel.

All that said, if you run across a unit that can id a nickel as good as it can id a quarter you should hang onto it, if that is important to you, cause there isn't that many that can do it.

HH
Mike

 

[horikindaguy]

Bill_S and I will be running the Omega 8500 all day tomorrow. I'll try kick things off with a menu walk through video tonight if I have time.

good timing guys, I'm really hoping the reality you shed will clear this up....maybe the OP just has a bad unit....

Craig, the 5x10" dd is my favorite coil so I will be interested in seeing how the 8500 does with it....

and hopefully you guys will make some great finds will you're at it.....

 

[detectingMO]

I don't have a factory 5x10. Just a sharpshooter at the moment.

Quick observations in my test garden with stock 10"

Out of the box

disc is at or around 33. This is the nails spot on the version 5/6 and G2.
deep 1, which is default and feels a lot like version 5/6, little more digital feel than version 4
3 on tones, same as 8000 default
can run the sensitivity much higher than the 8000 but then again there is no added threshold for the last 30 points
Can almost max out on sens before noise where as the 8000 version 4 couldn't go past 49 and version 5/6 couldn't get past 56. At this level on edge of noise it's a little deeper.
Tones sound the same. Maybe a little more digitized. Kind of like comparing F75 with dst to regular f75.
Holding menu for quick all metal check keeps disc ID. In all metal there is not number ID but there is category id, like g2. holding menu down in all metal does a disc check with ID. That's nice for the all metal hunters.
All metal is noticeably hotter and smoother than the 8000. And this was in d1 process. d2/d3 are even deeper. separate gain/thresh really makes it shine
No problem hitting 8" quarter, 7" nickel, an 6" with plenty of room to spare in disc. All metal waver distance is VERY far.
Id was good on quarter and dime. nickel was up averaged in the 80's for 50% of swings
backlight is a nice bright "white" light not red like g2+/F19. Like the F75
Disc ID now has decimal. 0.0 to 99.9 1000 points resolution just like ground balance. That was unexpected.
d0 is a fast recovery mode similar to enhanched F75. loses depth. hits 6" dime, ticks on 8" quarter and 7" nickel
d2 and d3 deep process have same slower recover and add depth. Just different EMI notch filters. 60hz in d2 and 50hz in d3. They are more sensitive but d2 zapped my buried power emi I get in my yard. Can run maxed out no problem. have to slow down to lock onto targets. That slow down to lock feels like f44 default swing speed to lock. But it's miles deeper. lol add 1-2" of depth over default d1 process and omega 8000. Like bP on F75. I didn't test it in all metal.
I think the multiple target id per pass light of categories will really help on high conductors and shallow targets. Will have to test but this could be ring finders best friend. Like a simplified polar plot from V3i. on my dime it only lit up that category
you can disc out to zinc but can notch out everything except iron

I need to wear some headphones and get some hunt time to get a better feel obviously. It's not a F44 and it's not a Omega 8000 version 4. I'm thinking Dave J didn't do the software on the 8500 because some of his "under the hood" smoothness of the version 4 gets lost with all the features.

My initial gut feeling is it's a better all arounder than the 8000 but specifically park hunter and clad cruise tool in arsenal the 8000 is a bit better for the job.

But I haven't hunted at all or test the 11" or 5" yet. Who knows what will happend there. But those people that want the option of more "punch" with a lower frequency machine definitely got it. I can see it being a relic monster with 11" dd field hunting in AM with some quick checks to disc.

 

[Tom Slick]

Per onemoreswing "the T2 is the Greatest VLF for nugget hunting ever ! bar none !" and here all along I'd pretty much only used the GMT, Gold Bug Pro, Gold Bug 2, and Lobo for VLF nugget hunting. Well there goes the past 40 years detecting. All that time I've wasted. Anybody have one of them T2's for sale?

 

[anton]

does any videos on the 8500 and depending on how long he keeps one,if he gets one for himself,will be an extremely good gauge on the 8500, thats for sure...

 

[detectingMO]

I have an etrac so no plans to get a 8500. No need for 2 coin machines.

note the backlight is actually red. Took it out of sun and its definitely red.

 

[detectingMO]

Mine must have had some settings tweaked in QC. After reset disc is 0 default. 8500 remembers all settings beside backlight and GB when shut off. Reset is turn on with pinpoint pressed. Version 1 btw. Played some more and tested 11dd. Really bumps its I'd depth accuracy as expected. It still feels omega at heart. Just lots going on and processing now. Still feels familiar. It favors a normal steady swing. Slow swing still lock good but really fast clips. Nothing like the f44 clipping but there. 8000 would gain depth on super fast swing but lose a lot with slow. Nothing wrong, just more processing now. DD can swing faster. Will be fun to test tomorrow for sure. Will try to get a menu walkthrough up 3 year old willing.

 

[jim tn]

n/t