Deeptech Vista X 'PRELIMINARY Testing'

This blog will be the same kind of content as I wrote for my Golden Mask 4 WD Pro, it's not a comprehensive review, it's sharing my thoughts on the machine after conducting some tests. My Vista X arrived about a week ago, I haven't managed to get out in the fields with it yet but I've been running it through the usual test scenarios that I conduct with all my machines. As we know, all these types of tests can never mimic real world conditions but they can give you an idea of a machines potential capabilities and it allows you to start to understand its language.

I find the units that tend to do well above the ground have a tendency to perform well out in real hunting environments. Not only that, it gives you a chance to learn the audio of 'said detector' when presented with a certain test scenario, what I mean by this is, if you have a non-ferrous target next to or under iron, what audio does the machine produce? what audio does the machine produce when a coin is partially masked by a nail? I want to get the audio of these scenarios ingrained in my head so I know what I'm potentially hearing out in the fields. 

The Vista X is a two tone machine, you have a high tone for non-ferrous and an adjustable low tone for iron, these tones are very tight, Being able to adjust the iron volume has its benefits, it almost adds a 3 dimensional quality to what you're hearing. I've been using the 17 KHZ 8' inch concentric coil in all of my testing and early results suggest that it should do well in ground that contains iron. 

The recovery speed appears to be fast and its ability to unmask different sized coins in close proximity to iron is pretty impressive. It can fall a little short on small sized coins from certain angles but still gives enough of a tone to alert you. The true test will be out in the fields though, hence why a comprehensive review of this machine will materialise once I have serious hours on the clock using it.

The video below shows the potential of the 8' concentric coil when it comes to unmasking various sized coins in close proximity to iron nails. After messing around it appears the Vista X with the 8' concentric coil works better with a slightly faster swing speed, this seems to help it discriminate out the iron better if you don't want to have your disc set too high. I'll get a much better idea of how to set the machine up once I've been out hunting with it, none of the settings appear to be complicated. 

When I was thinking about purchasing a Vista X I was intrigued about how it would handle modern trash, not that I'll be discriminating out anything other than iron but it's alway good to know the machines capabilities. It turns out that foil is handled very well, you can disc it out and still see a small silver 6 pence on both same plane and 3D tests. Not only that, if you wrap a silver six pence in foil the machine still gives it a solid non-ferrous tone, this test might seem extreme but if the machine can see a coin wrapped in foil then it will have no problem seeing non-ferrous targets in close proximity to it if you choose to disc it out.

Staying on the theme of modern trash ....... pull-tabs? once again I personally wouldn't cancel them out but if you choose to it still does a pretty good job at unmasking non-ferrous targets in close proximity. In same plane tests you can cover small and medium sized coins in pull tabs and the machine will see them without a problem. In 3D unmasking tests the machine struggles to see a silver 6 pence underneath more than one pull tab. However, this is a small coin, on larger coins it umasks better. Again, these are quite extreme tests and I believe in a real hunting environment the Vista X will have no problem unmasking when pull tabs are in close proximity, once again, this is good to know if you choose to disc them out. 

Moving on to the dreaded bottle cap, this is where the machine falls short, you can discriminate them out with no problems but there's a risk that in doing so you will mask non-ferrous targets in close proximity. When using the 8' concentric coil if you have a bottle cap under the coil at the same time as a coin it won't see the coin at all, I've tried this test with all different sized coins both small and large,  I've tried setting the machine up in various ways and it makes no difference. Once again, this emphasises why I don't disc bottle caps out, I'd rather get them out the ground. The video below will demonstrate what I'm explaining.

If you don't want to disc bottle caps out there is a technique that helps you identify them, as you swing over one, slowly drawing the coil back, as the cap reaches the edge of the coil you'll start to get an iron tone.  You can rotate a full 360 with the cap being on the edge of the coil and it will continue to give a low tone. I demonstrate the technique in the video below, the benefit to identifying bottle caps in this way is pretty cool because you're keeping the machine wide open and not adding discrimination that can mask potential treasure.

 

From all the tests conducted the Vista X is looking to be a promising machine, getting it out in the fields is the next step, there's only so many tests you can do before it's a pointless task. Real world performance is all that matters, in regards to the machines language I think I've got the basics down and naturally over time I'll get a much better understanding of what the machine is telling me.