The New Nokta Legend 2023 Version

[Bill (S. CA)]

Yesterday I decided to take my Legend to the beach for a morning low tide hunt.  I had not had the opportunity to do this due to work and pet issues for a good month so my Legend had changed a bit.  Specifically I was now running the new software V 1.11 and also had replaced the upper shaft, arm cuff and coil with the upgrades now available from Nokta Makro.

After hunting for a good three hours (more on that in a bit) and heading back to the car, something struck me.  The Legend, in its new configuration, is a radically different metal detector than the version that was released back in December 2021/January 2022.  I field tested that metal detector for Western and Eastern Treasures Magazine for their October 2022 issue.  The Legend at that time was an excellent metal detector.

In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Nokta Makro could easily have locked the early version of The Legend and then later this year come out with a new, updated version.  I thought back to so many manufacturers over the years who would take a model of detector, sell it a year or two,  then make a few changes to it and add on "+," "II," the word "pro," etc. 

But Nokta Makro chose not do to do this which is, I think, remarkable.  The Legend is faster, has more options, and is noticeably lighter than it was a year ago.

Forgive my soapboxing here, I'm not an advocate for any manufacturer, I just use what works for me.  But I thought this aspect of The Legend has been overlooked and deserved to be mentioned.  The Legend is not a year old detector.  If you have one and update it you have essentially a brand new model Legend.  Further, if you are contemplating a Legend, do not assume it is a year old design.  It is not.

Now to the beach hunt.  The new carbon fiber shaft, lighter arm cuff and LG30 coil make The Legend noticeably lighter and the balance is fine as always.  I met up with a buddy who was using a new model detector with a harness and I asked him to check out the weight of my Legend.  He did and was genuinely astonished, commenting that it didn't even weigh a pound.  Yeah, I know it weighs more that that but you get the idea.

That's the weight part of the new Legend.  As to hunting at the beach, I was able to hunt the wet sand at full sensitivity (30) with only minor chirping.  And I did not have to use the beach stability to calm the detector down.  Like in my field test last year, The Legend provided excellent depth on coins and low conductors.  However there was one noticeable change.  Another buddy had found a very small junk chain with a different brand detector and asked me to try to read it with my Legend.  At the time I was running the sensitivity at 28 and when I swept the coil over the chain I got only a small chirp.  Frankly, I would have walked right over it.  I decided to bump the sensitivity up to 30 and try again.  To my surprise, the chain hit hard, even when I raised the coil a couple of inches.  From that point on I ran The Legend at 30.  For those of you who are beach hunting with The Legend, I would recommend trying to run at 30 if you can.  I did not expect this much of a performance increase going from 28 to 30 and it may impact your ability to find fine chains.

For the day I had a pouch full of clad, a light suntan and a smile on face.  The Legend and I will be back out there again soon.

 

 

[Tometusns]

I live too far inland to do any beach hunting but I will say I agree with you whole heartedly about Nokta and the way they have upgraded the Legend. I really like using the Legend inland and here in SW Mo. it does very well finding treasures in the different scenarios that we deal with. I'm looking forward to getting the new middle shaft. I've already got the lg30 coil and going to add the lg24 when it becomes more readily available here. Also looking forward to the new pin pointer. 
Nokta is putting out some quality products at very affordable prices. Thank You Nokta!!😁👍👍

[DSMITH]

4 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

Yesterday I decided to take my Legend to the beach for a morning low tide hunt.  I had not had the opportunity to do this due to work and pet issues for a good month so my Legend had changed a bit.  Specifically I was now running the new software V 1.11 and also had replaced the upper shaft, arm cuff and coil with the upgrades now available from Nokta Makro.

After hunting for a good three hours (more on that in a bit) and heading back to the car, something struck me.  The Legend, in its new configuration, is a radically different metal detector than the version that was released back in December 2021/January 2022.  I field tested that metal detector for Western and Eastern Treasures Magazine for their October 2022 issue.  The Legend at that time was an excellent metal detector.

In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Nokta Makro could easily have locked the early version of The Legend and then later this year come out with a new, updated version.  I thought back to so many manufacturers over the years who would take a model of detector, sell it a year or two,  then make a few changes to it and add on "+," "II," the word "pro," etc. 

But Nokta Makro chose not do to do this which is, I think, remarkable.  The Legend is faster, has more options, and is noticeably lighter than it was a year ago.

Forgive my soapboxing here, I'm not an advocate for any manufacturer, I just use what works for me.  But I thought this aspect of The Legend has been overlooked and deserved to be mentioned.  The Legend is not a year old detector.  If you have one and update it you have essentially a brand new model Legend.  Further, if you are contemplating a Legend, do not assume it is a year old design.  It is not.

Now to the beach hunt.  The new carbon fiber shaft, lighter arm cuff and LG30 coil make The Legend noticeably lighter and the balance is fine as always.  I met up with a buddy who was using a new model detector with a harness and I asked him to check out the weight of my Legend.  He did and was genuinely astonished, commenting that it didn't even weigh a pound.  Yeah, I know it weighs more that that but you get the idea.

That's the weight part of the new Legend.  As to hunting at the beach, I was able to hunt the wet sand at full sensitivity (30) with only minor chirping.  And I did not have to use the beach stability to calm the detector down.  Like in my field test last year, The Legend provided excellent depth on coins and low conductors.  However there was one noticeable change.  Another buddy had found a very small junk chain with a different brand detector and asked me to try to read it with my Legend.  At the time I was running the sensitivity at 28 and when I swept the coil over the chain I got only a small chirp.  Frankly, I would have walked right over it.  I decided to bump the sensitivity up to 30 and try again.  To my surprise, the chain hit hard, even when I raised the coil a couple of inches.  From that point on I ran The Legend at 30.  For those of you who are beach hunting with The Legend, I would recommend trying to run at 30 if you can.  I did not expect this much of a performance increase going from 28 to 30 and it may impact your ability to find fine chains.

For the day I had a pouch full of clad, a light suntan and a smile on face.  The Legend and I will be back out there again soon.

 

 

Nice wright up

I do have a question for you though where were you able to purchase the new upgraded Carbon middle shaft and new arm cuff, I have been keeping an eye out for the upgrades and have been unable to locate them any where, i am wanting two of the upgrade packages one with the LG30 and one just the carbon fiber mid shaft and arm cuff

[DSMITH]

3 hours ago, Tometusns said:

I live too far inland to do any beach hunting but I will say I agree with you whole heartedly about Nokta and the way they have upgraded the Legend. I really like using the Legend inland and here in SW Mo. it does very well finding treasures in the different scenarios that we deal with. I'm looking forward to getting the new middle shaft. I've already got the lg30 coil and going to add the lg24 when it becomes more readily available here. Also looking forward to the new pin pointer. 
Nokta is putting out some quality products at very affordable prices. Thank You Nokta!!😁👍👍

yep me also only difference is I already have the LG24 coil which is a great coil by the way, when I receive the upgrades I will run one of my Legends with the LG24 and the other with the LG30 and use the LG15 for when I am detecting in tighter areas the LG28 will most likely set in the closet collecting dust, as i find the LG28 just seems to throw the balance of the legend off for me

[Chase Goldman]

5 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

However there was one noticeable change.  Another buddy had found a very small junk chain with a different brand detector and asked me to try to read it with my Legend.  At the time I was running the sensitivity at 28 and when I swept the coil over the chain I got only a small chirp.  Frankly, I would have walked right over it.  I decided to bump the sensitivity up to 30 and try again.  To my surprise, the chain hit hard, even when I raised the coil a couple of inches.  From that point on I ran The Legend at 30.  For those of you who are beach hunting with The Legend, I would recommend trying to run at 30 if you can.  I did not expect this much of a performance increase going from 28 to 30 and it may impact your ability to find fine chains.

First of all, I am also pleased with Nokta's responsiveness not only in listening to users' feedback but also in relatively promptly acting on that feedback.  Most impressive is that it does not seem that the improvements they have incorporated have resulted in any significant degradation in existing performance.  Always a risk when you incorporate change, regardless how small.  

However, that being said, I guess I tend to look at these things from the glass half empty perspective.  What this is telling me is that there is too much of decrement in gain (i.e., a rapid dropoff) for small adjustments in sensitivity.  It's great that you were able to pick up the chain when bumping from 28 to 30 but this does not bode well if you are in an environment that requires you to reduce sensitivity just a couple of points because of EMI, for example.  It appears that you significantly decrement fine target sensitivity relatively quickly.  It would have made me feel better if you said you had sensitivity at 25 and bumped it up gradually towards thirty and the chain became gradually more audible.  Am I interpreting this wrong?

I too would like some more details on how/where you were able to procure the shaft/arm cuff upgrades.

Thanks.

[Digalicious]

Are you certain that it was slightly increasing the sensitivity that caused the chain to be detected? That just doesn't seem right 🙂.

Chains are often detected in the upper ferrous range, or one ID right above the ferrous range. When they're not detected, it's usually because the first tone break is too high, ferrous is being discriminated out, or not a high enough frequency(s) is being used. Keep in mind as well, that with something as weak as a chain (without a pendant), even a slight difference in approach angle and/or coil height could be the difference between a chain being detected or not. Could it perhaps be one of those things that was the cause?

Incidentally, a few months ago, I did some air testing comparing depth with sensitivity at max, and going down to 16. I used the 6” coil, a silver dime, and the default of 5 for the recovery speed.

30-10”
29-9.5”
28-9.5”
27-9.5”
26-9”
25-9”
24-9”
23-8.5”
22-8”
21-7.5”
20-7”
19-7”
18-6.5”
17=6.5”
16-6”

[Jeff McClendon]

6 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

Another buddy had found a very small junk chain with a different brand detector and asked me to try to read it with my Legend.  At the time I was running the sensitivity at 28 and when I swept the coil over the chain I got only a small chirp. 

If it was really a "junk" chain, depending on which discrimination pattern and search mode you were using it could have been giving ferrous range and non-ferrous range target IDs and somewhat broken up audio. Running max sensitivity in Beach MW may have improved signal strength enough to give it a decent non-ferrous response. 

 

Thanks Bill for the great write-up.

I am seeing much the same on land. The Legend is just a really good detector.

If temps would stay above 50 degrees F long enough, I would take my Legend out to a nearby freshwater beach for a shallow hunt. Weather here in Denver has mostly stunk for all of March and April however.

[Digalicious]

There's very little gain enhancement between 28 and 30. Given how deep gold, and chains without pendants and clasps, can ID in the ferrous range, then going from 28 to 30 isn't very important for those type of targets. What's much more important to hit those items, would be lowering the first tone break into an appropriate amount of the ferrous range, and/or not using the Ferrous Discrimination pattern.

 

[Bill (S. CA)]

14 hours ago, Digalicious said:

Are you certain that it was slightly increasing the sensitivity that caused the chain to be detected? That just doesn't seem right 🙂.

Chains are often detected in the upper ferrous range, or one ID right above the ferrous range. When they're not detected, it's usually because the first tone break is too high, ferrous is being discriminated out, or not a high enough frequency(s) is being used. Keep in mind as well, that with something as weak as a chain (without a pendant), even a slight difference in approach angle and/or coil height could be the difference between a chain being detected or not. Could it perhaps be one of those things that was the cause?

Incidentally, a few months ago, I did some air testing comparing depth with sensitivity at max, and going down to 16. I used the 6” coil, a silver dime, and the default of 5 for the recovery speed.

30-10”
29-9.5”
28-9.5”
27-9.5”
26-9”
25-9”
24-9”
23-8.5”
22-8”
21-7.5”
20-7”
19-7”
18-6.5”
17=6.5”
16-6”

All I can tell you is what I saw when I changed the sensitivity.  The science experiment side of it, to be very honest, is of little interest to me.  I barely have the free time to hunt let alone do tests and analyses.   What this tells me is that I can run the Legend at max sensitivity in the wet without falsing.  That's good enough to me.

[Digalicious]

42 minutes ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

All I can tell you is what I saw when I changed the sensitivity.  The science experiment side of it, to be very honest, is of little interest to me.  I barely have the free time to hunt let alone do tests and analyses.   What this tells me is that I can run the Legend at max sensitivity in the wet without falsing.  That's good enough to me.

...and all that is great Bill. More power to you 🙂

You suggested to others of raising the sensitivity from 28 to 30 to help find gold chains. I added to that suggestion by mentioning the more prevalent ways in which chains are missed.