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Back in January 2015 the Fisher CZ-21 internet price increased from $1160 to $1499, a massive price increase. Now it is being lowered back down to $1299. Some places still have it listed for $1499 so just a heads up.

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The Fisher CZ-21 is one of the best VLF underwater detectors on the market and can double as a good dry land detector. Waterproof to 250 feet, it is the real deal when it comes to diving and built like a tank. It is the only serious competition to the Minelab Excalibur with the main difference between the two the basic physical design and control layout. Performance is too close to call. I personally prefer the CZ-21 due to the east hip mount capability and more distinct tone scheme and true all metal mode. You can get it in 8" or 10.5" coil sizes but the coil is hardwired so be sure and get what you want. Big coils are better on the beach but if you are also thinking parks and such on dry land the 8" is the better option. The 8" is also better in thick ferrous junk.

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Hi Steve, with the CZ-21 being locked in salt mode, how does it do on jewelry in the water and on land?  Coins?

I have never seriously considered a CZ-21 before but your post put it on my radar and it seems like it would be a great tool for those nasty sites, like caves, under porches, wading and swimming areas, sumps and such like.  It just seems to me like an Exanimo tool that begs more attention.

HH
Mike

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fisher-cz-21-8-coil-underwater-detector.jpg

The CZ-21 is a very capable land detector, just as good as the other CZ machines in that respect. A bit clunky if used as a rod based unit but hip mounted very nice actually. All that is really lacking is a meter but most serious detectorists hunt by ear anyway. Now that Minelab has discontinued the 8" version of the Excalibur the CZ is the better option for those wanting something other than a 10" coil.

There are two things about the waterproof CZ-21 that are a bit different. As you note it is locked into the "salt mode" because it is intended for hunting salt water. This means it lacks a small edge on the tiniest gold and platinum items plus small foil. It does make up for this a bit versus the Excalibur by offering a true ground balanced threshold based all metal mode. In reality it will do well enough for most people in that department but for people who want to hunt fresh water or dry land locations looking for micro jewelry, fine chains, etc. there are other options. The White's MX Sport and Tesoro Tiger Shark are hot on small gold but of course suffer in salt water.

The other oddity of the CZ-21 is that it is based on the original CZ "Coin Zapper" land detectors. The CZ models are somewhat unique because the discrimination scheme has been rearranged.

Here is the scale arrangement seen on most metal detectors because it follows the actual way detectors see items based on conductivity and size:

metal-detector-traditional-vdi-scale.jpg

Fisher designed the CZ series as coin detectors, but back in the day when single turn knobs were the norm for setting discrimination. They also wanted to keep things simple. Normally, if you have a single turn control using the traditional VDI scale you eliminate nickels if you turn the control up far enough to eliminate pull tabs. Fisher rearranged the scale so that eliminating aluminum items still left nickels as a detectable item. They went a step farther for those hunting by ear, and made nickels read as hi-tone instead of mid-tone where they normally would read. This made for a slick discrimination control and meter layout on the CZ-5 when it came out. Simply advance the discrimination control to 4 (marked in red) and most trash was eliminated. Savvy operators left the control at zero and went by tones - lo, med, hi. This helped with transient high tone blips from nails that would trick a CZ operator into digging a nail if the lo and mid tones were eliminated by advancing the disc control. Leave the control at zero and the lo tones on the nail would come through along with the hi tone transients, problem alleviated.

fisher-cz-5-control-panel.jpg

This is all fine and dandy for coin detecting. However, for the CZ-21 Fisher left the system the same, and that presents a small problem for jewelry hunters. With the CZ-5 you could visually identify nickel range targets and if after rings that read like nickels, dig those particular hi tone signals. On the CZ-21 all you have is tones, and the middle of the gold range has been plucked out and put in the hi tone area.

There is a rationale here. The majority of women's rings read below nickel in the foil range. The majority of men's rings fall above nickel in the tabs range. There is actually a dip in ring responses in the nickel zone as being too large for women's rings and too small for men's rings. By passing on nickels you only lose about 10% of the rings that are out there to be found.

However, for people like me, I want to dig the nickel targets. With the CZ-21 you can go for the gravy and just dig mid tones, but you will pass on the nickel range. Or, you can go for nickels by digging hi tones, but now you get all the pennies, dimes, etc. Great for coin detecting but sometimes when beach detecting and cherry picking I pass on coins as not worth the effort when digging in the surf.

Minor detail and of no importance to some. I am just the picky sort and my preference would be that the CZ-21 put nickels back in mid-tone where they belong. The chart below from the CZ-21 manual shows the issue well. But, for dry land detecting for coins, a CZ-21 is pretty sweet. Just dig hi tones! The most important thing is to know the disc knob on the CZ-21 does not work like a traditional disc knob. The little "cheater" icons that were on the CZ-5 knob are missing from the CZ-20 / CZ-21 knob and it would be easy to assume the disc knob is like on most other single knob units.

fisher-cz-detector-audio responses.jpg

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Sorry for the long response Mike but it was aimed at the general audience unfamiliar with the CZ, not you in particular. I have to admit after typing all that you have me wanting one now. I have a CTX for water hunting but the fact is I just do not trust it in rough surf for waterproof integrity. The CZ is bullet proof as they come and maybe what I need instead for places where a PI is not a good option due to all the iron. It would be fun to coin hunt again with a CZ also - I always liked that particular hi tone sound the machine makes on coins.

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Thanks Steve.  I appreciate the effort and found it helpful.  It is the CZ functionality and the "bullet proof" construction that has me interested.  I'd like to do more real treasure hunting this year and there is a hole in my kit that something like this could fill.  F75 on the ground,  V3 inside structures, and a good heavy duty all purpose unit like the CZ-21 could really round me out.

My real question if I jumped would be making sure I got a hot unit and not a cold one.  I would classify 'Hot' as being one that could air test both a nickel and a dime at 11" or more in Disc mode.  I wouldn't want a CZ-21 that only gets 7 or 8 inches on a nickel air test, especially since its locked in salt mode.

I guess if I decide to get one I could call the factory and see how hard it would be to get said unit.   But it looks better and better as I spend time plugging it in and out of my equipment gap.

HH
MIke

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