Legend - First Impressions

[Jeff McClendon]

The Equinox as most know, doesn’t have a mineralization meter. Maybe that was deliberate on Minelab’s part since they knew it could handle most types of mineralized ground very well and didn’t see a need for more display clutter. 
 

The Legend may not “need” one either for the same reason and it’s display is already full in my opinion. 
 

In the short time that I have hunted with the Legend, the Ferro-Check feature has done well on shallower borderline ferrous/non-ferrous targets. 
I can see this feature being helpful when gold prospecting, shallow relic hunting and beach hunting at low black sand content beaches. It seems to be a “possibility/probability” meter rather than an exact iron identification meter and could be a useful, easy to use tool. 
 

It seems that Nokta Makro is addressing a weakness in the onboard pinpoint function with a software update very soon. 
 

I was pleased to discover that the supplied Bluetooth headphones have fine tuning volume control onboard which can further adjust the overall volume level. This headphone feature might also help that sudden jump in threshold volume level between threshold volume settings 9 and 10. 

[Jeff McClendon]

I have not had a chance to hunt with the Legend at an East coast USA saltwater beach.

I did watch Calabash Digger’s Equinox 800/Legend beach video where he tested planted 10”, 12” US nickels and a 12” 14K ring. 

That video was disturbing. Calabash was not the problem. His testing was well done. The Legend he was using was constantly displaying target IDs of 9 and 10 when any of the iron range was accepted so it was constantly reacting to the salt levels and was also falsing in the upper 30s even with salt sensitivity at 5, reactivity 5, sensitivity in the low 20s, using Multi Wet in Beach mode.  Another Florida beach user posted a similar video with similar falsing/salt sensitivity issues. Hunting with the iron range accepted would have required a big reduction in the iron tone volume level, notching 9 and 10 or just not hunting in all metals accepted.

Very troubling in my opinion…….

 

[Tahts-a-dats-ago]

Dilek mentioned (video from a couple days prior) that the next update would address saltwater issues. Her comment to that regard was very brief - with no detail as to what exactly the update would change. That update should be available in the next few weeks (according to Dilek). I believe that update will also include the iron bias setting.

I have watched a few saltwater hunting videos where the Legend was very stable. I believe those were hunts in England. I think that the salt levels would be very close to what they are on the east coast of the US, but that may not be the case.

Whatever the cause of the instability, I am going to operate under the assumption that NM will get it ironed out and that updates will result in a Legend that is a very good beach machine.

[phrunt]

I guess no matter how much testing you do with a detector and how many "testers" you use once it gets into the wild the problems start to show that said testers missed.

[Jeff McClendon]

1 minute ago, phrunt said:

I guess no matter how much testing you do with a detector and how many "testers" you use once it gets into the wild the problems start to show that said testers missed.

We are very fortunate that detectors from some companies like Nokta Makro can be easily updated when the problems pop up. Are you listening FTP?????

[phrunt]

Yes, updates are a wonderful thing, its seriously hard to consider buying any new detectors that don't have the ability to update, especially as machines get more complex with multi frequencies it's becoming vital. 

First Texas won't do it, a new firmware gives them an excuse for a new model 😛

 

[Calarms]

Yes I seen that video you're referring to that Calabash Digger’s Equinox 800/Legend beach video, it seemed disappointing that the legend did not hit certain things or could go very deep, it may not be a good machine for the beach

[JCR]

I want to read what other, regular beach hunters have to say after the announced updates to IB & Beach programs.

[DSMITH]

24 minutes ago, Calarms said:

Yes I seen that video you're referring to that Calabash Digger’s Equinox 800/Legend beach video, it seemed disappointing that the legend did not hit certain things or could go very deep, it may not be a good machine for the beach

you can find other videos that completely dispute what calabash showed

[Calarms]

I hope it's a better unit than that,. The legend !

couldn't see anything that equinox hit, not to mention the DEUS 2 because that's a whole different class,, but I'm really reluctant to spend any money on the legend now ,