Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.

Omega 8500

Picketwire

Well-known member
A while back i bid $240 and won an omega 8500 with 3 fisher coils, the standard oblong concentric, the small dd and the 11x7 or whatever size it is along with the Black Garrett pinpointer, some cheap garrett headphones and an attachment to keep it from tipping over. I can only assume that it was so cheap because of all the badmouthing it received because it functions like it should except the pinpoint button has to be pushed right to work. It looks like it had a fairly rough life.

Here are a few of my opinions. One thing that was complained about it was the clipped sound. I can see how in deep 0 the sound could be described as such but if you swing over multiple targets and the tones aren't short or clipped you won't get a signal for each one. Deus manual warns users that if your reactivity is very fast the tones will be short. The differences between deep 0, 1, and 2 seem to me to reflect a difference in reactivity not only in discrimination but all metal also. I can't tell the difference in speed between 2,3, and 4. I really don't use 4 so I can't talk about it. I really don't understand the difference between a 50khz filter and a 60 one so I won't comment on it either.

This detector has an iron audio adjustment and also one for foil, nickel, pull tab, zinc, dime and quarter. You can notch out any of these same things. Using either one you can make the 8500 into a reverse discrimination detector. It lacks the fine tuning of some others when attempting this but since I don't use reverse disc, it is not a problem for me. You can also use the disc knob like other conventional detectors. It does not pick up small bits of aluminum or low conductors well except in all metal which is an advantage for coin shooting but a disadvantage for small bullets or gold nuggets but I don't use it for that anyway and I think most people don't look for them anyway.

It has a ground error display which if you are over a good target will show an error on the high side which has confused some people who think they should rebalance when it does so. However if you are not over a target it is pretty accurate. You can automatically offset you gb positive or negative if you want but I usually don't. There is also a mineralization meter to show you the amount of it.

I really don't use the large DD coil so I can't really give any kind of an evaluation of it. The elliptical concentric to me is an amazing coil. You can even use the DD pull back method with it in discrimination and in pinpoint when you pull the coil toward yourself and the sound disappears the target is pretty close to the to directly in front of the inner coil. Bottle caps don't fool me much with this coil. The small coil is a laser too. I have a Nel sharpshooter coil for it but I don't see the advantage of it over the concentric, they both seem very similar in separation and depth but the Nel is more confusing on bottle caps. I also have the camouflage 10x5 DD fisher coil from the F19 for it and like it better than the sharpshooter. I didn't think anything could be sharper on the tip than the nel coil after using one on a T2 but on the omega, it's my perception that the fisher one is. People who have weighed the Fisher and the Nel say the Fisher is lighter but due to the mounting, it feels heavier to me.

I use an EBL rechargeable battery which to me seems to give very good life. The batter level indicator is made for alkaline and drop off the top level fairly quickly but lasts a long time after the initial drop. The last so long that I have a habit of ignoring the level indicator. When they say they are getting low you better change it out with a different one as the just stop instantly. The volume will drop to give you a clue but with rechargeables it won't drop for long! One time I took it out detecting and thought it odd that it sounded quieter than before but since I use the headphones for other detectors also didn't think about it and also didn't look at the battery level indicator. After I dug a target and picked it up I wondered why it was so quiet. Short story: dead battery.

Some things that I really don't use are the iron probability and signal strength meters and the backlight but I think they are useful to others. I modified my Gold Bug so I didn't have to turn the knob to switch from disc to am which I could do to the Omega but I don't switch as much with it as the Gold Bug and menu button offers a quick switch between the two although it doesn't seem to me to keep the same threshold. With my gb 87 and mineralization half way up the graph, i really can't use full sensitivity but it seems as deep here as almost any other of my detectors. For what I paid for it, it was the best bargain I have ever found in metal detecting and consider it one of the best on the market for the price. And that's all I got to say about it.
 
Great write-up. The 8500 is feature packed and it seems that you have it figured out completely. Your explanation of the deep filters was excellent. I had came to the same conclusion, but you did a much better job explaining than I could. I have had several of the newer mid priced detectors and the 8500 was a better coin shooter. Yes, you got a screaming deal.
 
Also the 8500 needs to be ground balanced in all metal like the F19/G2+.. I made the mistake of ground balancing in disc until I read the manual
 
I have a 4 inch coil for the omega and one for the F2. The F2 one plugs into the control box just fine. Trouble is sensitivity has to be set almost halfway up to detect a dime rubbing on the bottom of the coil. At full sensitivity, separation is fantastic at a depth of up to and inch and a half or two. The 4 inch coil was originally for the F44 and it works very well and gives surprising depth. The Nel sharpshooter and snake work very well too. I like the sharpshooter better than the Fisher same size coil on the Omega but the opposite on the Gold Bug. The 11 inch elliptical concentric coil for the F44 is deep but is harder for me to pinpoint with and not really all that good in my very highly mineralized soil. The 7 inch concentric for the F44 series works well but I prefer the sharpshooter or standard concentric. For a large coil I have a Mars Tiger and Sef 10x12. I prefer the Sef but like the Mars better on the Gold bug. I really want to try the ultimate coil but haven't made a connection yet. I really like being able to share coil between the Omega and the Gold Bug.
 
Top