The Fisher F75 special edition build quality and features
The Fisher F75 special edition has eight different tone settings and six different processes
Once in the Process menu, keep pressing the red button to scroll through the different processes, press the rotary control and return to the detect screen
The notch feature
When scrolling through the menu and reach notch it activates as soon as you turn the control, but it won't de activate when you turn it back, you can either scroll through the menu again and quickly turn the control left to right as soon as you hit "notch" or the easier way is to factory re set by holding the button in and pushing the trigger forward then turn the machine on, notch will then be disabled.
FE03 04 meter This is a great feature it tells you how mineralised your soil is or to be exact the amount of magnetic mineralisation, a low to medium soil mineralisation will show no indication, a high reading will show a series of black bars, to get an accurate reading it is best to raise and lower the coil above the soil and watch the meter.
That's the basic F75 SE info now let's get out into the field and see how it performs Fisher F75 review by Dave Corsey Fisher F75 SE new user review DESIGN AND FEEL Picking up the F75 se for the first time I could see it was a purposeful piece of kit and was inspired to crack on with some field testing. The overall feel and balance felt it was light enough to swing all day long, I could sense this machine was going to be fun. The design and ergonomics is very focused for the job in hand compared to some other brands I have recently tested. The control unit looks tidy and meaningful with a very well thought out display; everything is clearly displayed, as a new user I found it quick and easy to understand. I felt that a nice little design touch was the ability to squeeze the arm cup at the sides to make for a more comfortable grip round the back of your arm, also open it up a little to accommodate a thick jacket sleeve on those colder days. No need for a strap as this machine is balanced well enough so you never feel the arm cup drop away from the back of your arm or slop around. The three piece stem is sturdy and accompanied by camlocks, so providing assembled correctly you will have no stem wobble even in amongst the hard stubble. Holding the firm durable grip on the F75 se felt like it gave more control with each swing, some detectors I have tried in the past feel a little awkward due to having a soft thicker grip that twists while swinging, these soft grips makes a detector feel a little sloppy and over nose heavy and loose. The F75 only uses 4 aa batteries, some might think that this detector hasn’t the power or stamina to get the job done, Think Again !. GROUND BALANCING This is as simple as finding a quiet spot on the ground free of any metallic items and then pumping the coil up and down 4-5 times while the trigger is pushed forward. This method is called FAST GRAB You just need to listen out for the audio to become even, so as you raise the coil up off the ground around 6 inches you’ll hear a slight hum and lowering the coil about an inch from the ground until you hear an even audio tone response on the up and down. If the F75 se couldn’t be ground balanced for any reason you will be told on the display that it can’t ground balance. In this case the ground is too harsh or a large metallic item lies beneath the coil while balancing. For the more experienced detectorist manual ground balance is also available if need be. There is also a ground mineralization indicator on the display if you need to know for any reason the properties of the ground itself. SEARCH COILS The two coils that I was able to test was the standard biaxial 11”coil and the 5” round DD coil. 11” BIAXIAL COIL This coil looks very stylish indeed unlike a lot of bland standard coils fitted to today’s detectors. Personally I felt that there would be no need to have a larger coil as it provided great depth and good separation, the standard coil is good enough in my eyes for many terrains. 5” ROUND DD COIL This is a great addition for the FISHER F75 se, very deep seeking for a small coil and great recovery, all bundled together in a light weight small package. If your fields are overgrown or still in full bloom then fit this coil on and start searching them, I found it perfect for hedgerows and woodlands to maximise finds potential. My second signal on my first outing with this great coil turned out to be a silver sixpence around 5” down in a small woodland. I also found other relic type items that gave good sharp audio responses. This is such a versatile sensitive coil, you literally can use it anywhere within reason, I even found myself hunting big iron infested fields due to its excellent target separation, I was quite impressed how my finds rate went up with a coil of this size. I found myself walking very slowly and methodically sweeping the ground as if it was shading in a picture with a pencil and getting great results. With the bigger coils you are limited in certain areas but this has no limitations when tight spaces come in to play. I even managed to get this coil into a burnt out tree trunk and still swing left and right. A brilliant coil and a must have in my opinion. There are many aftermarket coils available so I’m sure you will find the right coil that suites your style of hunting and needs. MODES AND TONES DEFAULT DE MODE DE is your basic pre-set default setup mode; I found this mode worked very well in the local parks for general hunting without being twitchy or over sensitive, I found this a very adequate mode and was happy to plod around the park cherry picking stable items. The recovery speed is very fast, “nipping” from one target to another was quite effortless in this mode. JEWELLERY JE MODE This is the mode I did most of my hunting with as I found it very sensitive, it is very confidence inspiring, I felt that I was missing nothing within reach of the coil. JE mode also gave very good depth, and I believe JE mode gave me a little more separation of deeper targets than DE mode.
BOTTLE CAP BC MODE This can be an awkward mode depending on the hunting environment in my opinion. It works well but will always leave’s you scratching your head thinking what if ? The awkward part I found with this mode is that if two different kinds of metals are next to each other it appeared to make the signal jump around, this leaves you thinking is it a bottle cap or two metals close together. For instance you might have a nice silver coin next to a piece of foil that will also make the numbers and audio jump around… bottle cap or not, you’ll have to dig to ease your mind. In a new park say next to a new housing estate when you are only modern coin hunting this maybe the mode for you and then you can dig those deeper stable signals without the fear that you might be missing old items. The condition of the bottle top plays around with audio and numbers also. I also found in BC mode the recovery speed is slightly slower than DE mode. The upside of this mode is that you will dig less trash as this mode is a little fussier over the targets under the coil, only leaving you to pick nice clean targets what I don’t mind in a busy park. PLOUGHED FIELD PF MODE This mode was a bit of a fence sitter in my opinion, I understood the purpose but never really used it due to the other modes covered all that I needed, it is supposed to give a smoother operation while searching uneven terrain, but I will have to give this further investigation when the fields are ploughed. BOOST PROCESS BP MODE This mode was a deep seeking all rounder that performed very well. Very sensitive and recovery speed was good to, I found on many occasions switching to this mode to boost those iffy signals that the other modes just couldn’t grab constantly. This mode will find relics and coins at astonishing depths also without having to go flat out with the sensitivity. Boost mode also worked well with the small 5” coil, the combination of depth from the mode and the sharpness and precision of the small coil is a great and a “must try” in my eyes. I am convinced in Boost mode you will pick up coins and artefacts that many detectors simply cannot see. CACHE LOCATING CL MODE Well if you are hunting for big to medium items on quiet ground then I wouldn’t suggest using any other mode providing you are willing to slow down your swing speed. Very sensitive and deep indeed but be aware that the recovery speed is reduced in order to gain that great depth that this mode has to offer. If you are looking for old items that have sunk over many years then CL is a great mode for you. I found detecting in public parks using CL mode was very edgy as it seemed to pick up and mash signals due to the slower recovery speed. This mode will give you a huge advantage over many detectorists in low cut hard stubble where you just cannot get the coil on the ground. I was able to raise the coil and 3-4 inches off the ground and still pick up a ten inch deep coin I placed in my garden months back. This mode on quiet ground is a game changer, just keep your swing speed slow even and steady. AUDIO TONES The general audio sound of the F75 SE is clean and crisp and gives a good indication of signal size and depth depending on size of target. Shallow items have a zip zap sound and this is most evident in CL mode running 1 or 1F Sounds vary depending on what tones you wish to use, but iron is always the same if running no discrimination in multi tone. It is a non-intrusive tone that sounds like if someone is saying nah nah as your swing the coil back and forth across the iron. The selection of pre-set audio tones is completely a case of taste in my opinion because you can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. For instance you can have from one tone that will sound off at every piece of metal in the ground depending on your discriminations settings, or the DP mode that gives a different tone for every single different metal you encounter on the VDI scale. I could talk about what audio setting does what and why but the manual and will tell you in more detail about tones and their advantages, I will just tell you a couple that I preferred. When I was just out general hunting with no discrimination I used 2F, this gave me a low grunt for iron and a higher pitch tone for non-ferrous items. The iron tone let me know how severe the iron contamination was in certain areas, allowing me to slow down and work between it. Simple and effective to say the least, it’s a great audio feature that most detectorists prefer. It takes the guess work away and is so simple to understand compared to other tone options you might be unfamiliar with. Whatever targets you are seeking it is a case of swing listen look and dig with the 2F tone. If you would like to hear just one tone select tones 1 or 1F from the menu and just raise the discrimination to reject iron like a conventional machine, you can’t get it wrong! If I had a limited amount of time to detect I would use 1F and have a quick look at the VDI, if the numbers were desired and stable I would dig. The other tone I liked while hunting for deeper items was 3H as it gave a nice high tone to the higher conductive metals and held the tone well if not faint depending on size and depth. DP tone is great for scale, all you need to get memorized is the tone of iron and the tone of a high conductor say like copper. Once you have these two tones in your mind then you are able to pick and choose between targets by ear instead of looking at the VDI. TESTS AND PERFORMANCE I like to put all detectors I am able to use through some very harsh tests and the F75 se was not going to be in for an easy ride. From real “in the field tests” to my deep plough test bed and 3d air testing I am able to set up most situations a detectorist may encounter. With the Fisher F75 se you have a lot of computing power and technology at your fingertips to give you the best advantage and overcome various challenges you might find in the real world of detecting. With discrimination that cranked right the way up to 65 on the display and being able to notch out certain unwanted metals made this machine a very versatile hunter indeed, it’s like a jack of all trades, the Swiss army knife of detectors to a certain degree. I have never come across a detector like the Fisher F75 se before, it’s a unique machine in many ways. If you can run the F75 se at full sensitivity depending on the EMI level it is simply mind blowing in performance with regards to size of objects you will find. Instead of classing sensitivity as deep seeking power in this case, class it as a magnifying glass, more the sensitivity added the bigger smaller items become. Looking at the sensitivity this way will give you a better understanding of how good the F75ltd is at finding metallic items. I was able to place a tiny and I mean tiny piece of tin foil on my finger tip and this mighty detector picked it up as I waved my finger back and forth across the coil while running high sensitivity. I hear that some people have sold their brand new F75se detectors because they are too noisy or unstable…. Rubbish talk !! they just failed to take the time to understand this great detector and the way to use it correctly. The F75ltd has two stages to its sensitivity, 1-29 low gain and 30-99 high gain. If you run this detector at 99 on the sensitivity then be prepared for a noisy detecting session depending on how you search and the EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) around such as other detectors radio transmitters, mobile phones, remember this is a highly sensitive piece of electrical equipment!. Running the Sensitivity at 99 is crazy in my opinion unless you are searching for micro metal fragments if that’s the case then congratulations you have just purchased the right metal detector for the job. Try this providing your area is free from EMI…which is very hard to find in these digital times, ground balance the detector the best you can then raise the sensitivity all the way up to 99, hold the F75 se steady, make sure it’s quiet then lower and swing the coil about one inch from the ground, now you will see how amazingly fisher have tuned this detector, yes all that chatter is micro fragments and small pieces of metal. I think it is completely amazing that they have made a machine that picks up the tinniest items all the way to huge deep objects with only one frequency of 13kHz and using just 4 aa batteries… amazing. As I said before it’s a jack of all trades, so use the sensitivity wisely and correctly according to the ground conditions and you will get the best out of the detector day after day. If modern coin hunting is your game then keep the sensitivity around 35 you will still be rewarded and impressed! If hunting for maybe Victorian items then a sensitivity setting around 50 is good. If hunting for very old items then a sensitivity level around 80 should do, that gives you great depth indeed without being bombarded with detector chatter. All of the above is what worked for me and will vary depending on many factors, so if you experiment you will eventually find your ideal setting for the items you are looking for and of coarse the terrain you hunt. If you like to hunt for just big higher conductive targets then raise the discrimination all the way to 65 then this will avoid a lot of modern trash and hunt with the high hope for big gold, copper, brass and silver items. Just bare in mind that will lose smaller thin items like gold and silver rings running very high Discrimination levels. I like to use zero discrimination in all multi tone modes as I like to hear the iron underneath the coil it’s like an audio image being constantly relayed to me. For every day I used the Fisher F75 se the more I understood the power and ability of this detector to get the job done, it greatly increased my hunger to detect. The more input I gave the more the F75se rewarded me. It is a very sensitive and powerful detector to say the least, from simple coin hunting to relic hunting and anything in between. Micro jewellery to deep hidden hoards cannot hide within the F75se’s mighty reach so I see no reason why you would need any other detector other than variety. MY FISHER F75se VERDICT As you can see I bonded with the F75 SE from day 1 and found it has opened my eyes to a wide variety of possibilities. One of the best detectors I have tested to date and in my opinion and well worth the money. There are a few other options available that I have not mentioned yet such as the all metal mode and non-motion mode that worked well but not tested thoroughly enough to pass judgment. When making a call on buying a high performance detector of this calibre and price you have to be sure it is a worthy buy. I personally would have no issue with spending the best part of a thousand pound on the Fisher F75 se as it has so many great features and is very capable for a beginner right the way to long time well weathered detectorists. One fine detector indeed. |
