Nokta Legend Review 'Beach Mode Only'

I use the Nokta Legend exclusively to hunt on the foreshore so this blog will be an overview of the machine running in beach mode. I won't be taking it into the fields because that's where I like to use my analog machines.

I'd kept my eye on the Legend for a very long time, it came across as a cool looking unit, it was clear that when it was released things weren't quite right within certain areas of its operation. However, as time went by Nokta appeared to be listening closely to the end users and they slowly started to iron out the glitches and got it to a level that everyone appears to be happy with - including me.

I hunt the Thames foreshore nearly everyday, it's a harsh environment, I need something that is resilient in its construction and faultless in its performance. I'd been using my Equinox 800, it performed very well, or so I thought, and it actually managed to stay in one piece. I guess I could've carried on using it but I went completely off of Minelab, I mentioned it in a previous blog, I think they take the piss out of the end user in regards to both the quality and the price of their machines. The marketing is very clever but I just don't see anything special in their new units. When they suddenly flooded the market with new detectors at all price points, they were clearly trying to kill the competition and monopolise the market place. I find them to be highly overrated and overpriced and I won't be giving them anymore of my money.

Due to the nature of the foreshore I opt to use a digital unit, I explain the reasons why in my blog The Thames Foreshore 'Why I Go Digital" I've never been interested in anything XP had to offer but Nokta always interested me, they seem to listen to their customers and it appeared with the Legend that they had something to prove. I decided to purchase the Legend because I liked the look of it, the tones were nice and, after all the updates, it appeared to perform very well. 

I purchase the pro pack because I wanted the 6' inch coil, this will stay on the machine permanently, I don't have any use for the 11' inch coil. Unboxing the machine and putting it together it became apparent very quickly that the build quality was fantastic, it felt great in the hands, super solid, balanced and comfortable, the handle is simply awesome. When you hold it, it genuinely feels like you've got the right tool for the job. There is no comparison to the build quality of the Legend compared to the Equinox, to put it bluntly, the feel of the Legend only highlighted even more that the Equinox felt like a plastic piece of garbage. The carbon shaft that holds the coil looks sharp, the locking mechanism, and the fact that the shape of the shaft doesn't allow any twist means the machine and coil are always in perfect alignment. The whole unit folds down really small which is ideal when transporting it to and from the locations I hunt, it can fit in a backpack comfortably.

You don't have to worry about the arm cuff breaking because it's made of a tough flexible plastic, the slot for the extra battery pack is a nice touch, the battery itself slides tightly into the slot that's been designed for it. The module is a lot larger than what I thought it would be, it feels unbreakable and I certainly won't worry about it getting soaked by the tides. After each hunt I actually wash it in the water to clean off all the mud, I couldn't of done this with my Equinox without the risk of it flooding. The wireless headphones that come with it are nice and comfortable and after a few hours wearing them I don't get aching ear lobes. The audio they produce is symphonic and the character of the tones sound panoramic. 

When switched on the interface is comfortable on the eyes and easy to navigate, the buttons feel satisfying to press, it only took a few minutes to get comfortable with all the settings and options, scrolling through them is easy and intuitive. The clock, light and vibrating handle might be nice touches but I won't be paying any real attention to them. The same goes for the screen, I won't be paying any attention to that either, only if I'm changing a setting. The stability of the VDI falls into the irrelevant category for me, numbers are meaningless and even if I did hunt by the VDI it is impossible on the Thames because there are literally hundreds of mixed targets on every swing. You've got to go by the audio, metal detecting is a "tones game". I can see the ferro-check being a cool little feature for shallow park hunting but I won't be paying any attention to it for reasons mentioned above.

BUT! putting all those features aside, for other detectorists, all these elements add to a feature packed machine that really can't be beaten for the price. You're getting one hell of a detector for the money.

Royal Marines Belt Buckle 

In regards to the overall settings, I won't really be using many of them at all, I like to keep things simple so most will be set to 'stock' and I will modify what I see as important to get the best performance out of the unit on the foreshore. The Thames has to be one of the hardest environments to metal detect, not many people do it, most people you meet are 'eyes only' mudlarkers. I've never met another detectorist, and that's for a good reason. The sheer amount of iron has to be seen to believed, there are holding areas where you literally can't see the ground due to all the iron debris. But it's these areas that hold a lot of good targets and if you don't have your machine set up correctly you might as well not bother. Also you need to know what the machine is telling you and this is comes from understanding the audio.

Digital machines are a variation of a theme so I understood the audio straight out the gate and it felt comfortable to me straight away. After swinging for an hour or so it felt like home and I started to pull a number of buttons and coins from the iron with little problem. I find the tones on the Legend to be sweet and very telling, its language is colourful, the modulation within the audio paints a panoramic picture of what's under the coil. I run the unit in 6 tones, this gives me more than enough information and it has a very obvious "coin tone" that leaps out at you.

I dropped all the audio windows down to 9 except the iron, I upped this to 5, I like to meditate on the iron tone, I like it to be quite loud. Running the machine like this creates the perfect foundation for the other tones to leap out from. It might sound crazy but I hunt in all metal, this is not for the faint hearted, if I'm going to describe the way the Thames environment sounds, I have two words "brain damage". But I love deciphering the chaos, it's far from easy but the rewards are there if you're willing to learn your machine. All metal gives me the most information, it allows me to find the line in the mud were the majority of the targets settle. Switching all metal off just wouldn't give me the information that I need to locate holding areas.

So How Do I set The Legend Up?

I'm in Beach, 'multi-wet' and I run it as wide open as possible, my iron filter and stability is wound down to 1, my audio gain is on 3, this helps me to suss out slightly deeper targets, my recovery switches between 9 & 10 this all depends how dense the targets are. If I hit extreme iron I might push the IF up to 2 or 3 but I never go higher than that. The secret sauce embedded within the Legend is its ability to knock out both small and large iron with the IF on 1. On really large iron you get the overload tone so it's really obvious when you're swinging over big pieces. I see no point in running my IF high because target masking will occur, I can see the point for new users or beginners to the hobby but my advice, once you get use to the machine, would be to run it as low as possible. In regards to the other settings, they're left alone, I don't notch anything out and I don't mess with tone breaks. 

Using the Equinox 800 on the Thames, the iron bias setting was its downfall because you had to run it really high, almost at it's maximum to knock out iron properly, running it like this inevitably created target masking and it was clear that was happening, after using the Legend on the regular areas I hunt I can say with 100% confidence that I was missing a lot of treasure with my 800. Combined with all the above, I run my sensitivity at 22, you don't need depth on the foreshore, it's all about separation/speed and unmasking, most things are just under the surface or between 2 to 5 inches. I'll only push my sensitivity up if I'm over large protruding rocks because the coil is further away from the ground. I like to swing fast and dig fast, I get in a pretty intense rhythm because I only have limited time before the tide comes in, with my recovery set high the Legend feels like a weapon, it's really fast.

One trait that it excels at is seeing targets through rock, I've found a number of small treasures nestled under quite large rocks, it gives off a sweet whispery tone which is unmistakable. I've hit on so many different targets and it hits hard on all conductivities and picks up the smallest of items with a solid signal response. I think the most impressive pull so far out of iron was a tiny little pin, the target produced this beautiful hushed tone that was very distinctive. I genuinely don't feel like I'm missing much at all. Of course there's going to be things missed in really heavy iron but the Thames has a habit of continually moving this around so some days gaps have been created to give the machine the best chance at seeing potential treasure. It's amazing what you can actually keep pulling from a relatively small area.

Regarding the stability, I rate it 10/10, when I move further down the foreshore onto the dense mud it's silent, I actually have to wave my trowel above the coil to check that it's still on. This enables me to hear, what I describe as whisper signals, I've dug specks of lead that you can barely physically pick up because they're so small. Having a machine that can do this is a god send because you find a lot of tiny coin fragments and tiny worn away buttons, these types of targets are common on the Thames because treasures are nearly always in transit and they get worn away on the rocks whilst on their journey. To get the most out of the machine you have to understand how the DD coil behaves, I find going over areas from all angles can produce rewards because a masked target that is missed from one direction can reveal itself crossing over it from a different angle. 

Conclusion?

There's really not much else to say, if I was going to be pedantic, the positioning of the coil ears is a little annoying because I find I'm having to adjust the angle of the coil quite a lot but that's a minor point. People who read my blogs know that I love my analog machines for my fields, but the Thames is a different animal all together. The Legend as a machine and for the performance it displays is an absolutely fantastic unit and I love using it so much, it's built like a tank, it has it's own language and for the price I just don't think it can be beaten, I genuinely didn't think that I'd be making such a claim. I understand there's a lot of "fanboys" that are connected to other companies that claim it's a "sloppy seconds" machine but I sense many are butt hurt because it's clear Nokta have a bought a unit to the table that stands up with the apparent "big boy's" with ease. Obviously I have no experience with it in the fields and running it in the other modes, but for what I've purchased it for, exclusively for the Thames in my hometown of London, it's an animal.

To Finish

Am I doing a U-turn on my overall opinion of digital machines? no I'm not but you've got to give credit where it's due and use the best tool for the job regarding the environment you're hunting.