There's A Legend On The River Thames 'Panoramic Thinking'

Lets Build Some Context

Having an open mind is a beautiful thing, I've always tried to keep mine as open as possible because I'd rather see the world around me as panoramic as possible. This in turn leaves all your doors open and new ways of thinking and understanding allow you to continually change your perspective and perception - I think the term I'm looking for is 'evolving'. My dad who got me into metal detecting at the age of 10, who sadly passed away just over a year ago, told me something that will stick in my mind forever. He said to me "Paul some people have 30 years experience and others have one years experience 30 times" ...... think about that for a second or two. It matters not how long you've been doing something, it's how you've applied your mind within the time frame and if you pushed yourself to progress, or did you simply become a casualty of a safe and secure repetition. 

I don't get on with small minded people, they seem to rear their heads everywhere and you can usually tell who they are pretty quickly, they can never be wrong and seem to shout the loudest. There seems to be a few that lurk around my YouTube and Instagram just waiting for the opportunity to demonstrate their superior knowledge and wisdom, at some point, without fail, I always get the "I know what I'm talking about, I've been metal detecting 45 years" line. OK, was it actually 45 years experience in metal detecting or one years experience 40 times. Judging by the utter shite that comes out of their mouths I'd say it's one years experience 40 times. 

Nowadays tunnel vision is an addiction, if you shrink your view of the world to the size of a pinhead then you don't need to think or challenge yourself in any way, you can be the ultimate master of your small universe/test garden. You can continue to be king of your castle, however that castle is built on sand, eventually it will come toppling down and the lessons you may have been avoiding will have to be leant just the same. Where am I going with this? I guess you can look upon this blog as an extension of my Brand Loyalty 'I Don't Get It' blog and my The River Thames Foreshore 'Why I Go Digital' blog. Now, in my detecting, if I had a closed mind and was utterly convinced that "it's analog or nothing", that would mean I've shrunk my world to the size of a pin head. Having said that, in the fields and on my permissions it is 'analog or nothing' because I love their operation. But when it comes to the Thames foreshore that's when having an open has benefitted me.

I've previously stated, I love all metal detectors, cheap ones, expensive ones, old tech, new tech but I'm selective on where I choose to spend my money. For years now I've been hunting the Thames foreshore, I've used a few different machines but my main preference was my Equinox 800 with the 6' inch coil, I've explained in previous blogs why I chose to use the Equinox. The machine has served me well but if I'm honest I've gone off Minelab and genuinely don't want to use any of their products anymore. Over recent years I just get the feeling they're taking the piss out of the end user. The known issues of the first Equinox series never really got addressed and then suddenly flooding the market with loads of below par machines appeared like a desperate move to kill the competition. 

People appear to be jumping up and down praising the Equinox 900 but in my eyes, they've basically released an 800 built like it should've been in the first place. Yes, there might be a few improvements in performance compared to the 800 but is it really worth the money? good build quality of any detector should come as standard, with Minelab it appears to be an exception. I've personally had no issues with my 800 in regards to breakages but I feel that's more by luck than design. I hunt the river Thames nearly everyday, I am blessed because I live 5 minutes away from the foreshore. I decided I wanted to get a new machine to use exclusively on the river, "this is where having an opened mind rewarded me", I decided to go for the Nokta Legend. Nokta seem to have a point to prove and I genuinely think they listen to their customers. I've never owned or used a Nokta machine before so I was quite excited to get the Leg-end, I know initially it had some glitches and problems but it appears with the updates it's all been sorted out.

If I'd listened to some of the self proclaimed experts out there I might've steered clear of the Legend because there were a few that insisted it was reverse engineering with below average performance. It might well of been when it was released but I quietly kept an eye on it and when it reached a point 'update wise' that I thought demonstrated the type of performance I was looking for, I was genuinely excited about the prospect of getting one to use on the Thames. 

Firstly the name "Legend" makes me cringe somewhat, but that's a minor detail. The first thing that struck me about this machine was the build quality, it's exceptionally sturdy and feels solid in the hands, there's just no comparison to the build quality of the Equinox. The hand grip kicks arse and the module is larger than I thought it would be, it comes across as very solid and resilient. The screen is a good size and the options are easy to see, they're also easy to navigate and the buttons are strangely satisfying to press, I was worried the screen was going to be cramped and the icons would be to small, that's just not the case at all. It didn't take long to understand both the controls and the interface, all these kinds of machines are a variation of a theme. 

I won't be taking the Legend into the fields, it's solely for the Thames so the 6' inch coil will stay on the unit indefinitely, with this coil it's a joy to swing. One point though, I wish they'd put the coil lugs in the centre of the coil as opposed to the back, you do find yourself having to adjust the coil quite a lot because of the position of the lugs. Just like I stated with my Equinox, a vast majority of the settings I won't be using, it will basically stay in beach mode with a few modifications. Before heading out to the foreshore I messed around with a few of the other options, I was going to use the unit as wide open as possible, meaning the least amount of filters possible. 

My settings on the foreshore are simple, I run it in beach, I have a recovery speed of 8 or 9 and the iron filter and iron stability both on number 1, audio gain is set to 3, everything else is off. I search in all metal mode with an iron volume of 5, I like to meditate on the low tone. The surprising thing is that the machine still knocks out larger iron with an IF setting of 1, if you encounter really large iron you get a very obvious overload tone. Using the machine with the above settings does a very good job of unmasking non-ferrous in close proximity to ferrous. Along with all the above I use 6 tones and run it in multi-wet with a sensitivity between 22 -24. The machine runs beautifully stable even in the areas where black sand can be found. I'm not going for depth, most items on the foreshore are close to the surface so you can really utilise the machines fast recovery speed.

I had to run the disc on my Equinox 800 really high because it would false so much on all shapes and sizes of iron, the Legend just doesn't have this problem and when I took it down for my first hunt it became clear very quickly that I'd been missing targets with my 800. How do I know This? because leading up to purchasing the Legend I focused on a very small area of the foreshore with the plan to hunt it until I just couldn't get anymore signals using the Equinox. It took about 2 minutes with the Legend to start hitting on non-ferrous items that I know I'd walked over with the Equinox. I believe the iron filter on the Legend is superior to the iron bias on the Equinox, you just don't have to run it high at all. 

I'd always liked the Minelab tones and it took me a little while to get use to the ones on the Nokta but the more I used the machine the more I liked its language. Even though it's a digital VDI machine, I only pay attention to the audio, the only time I look at the screen is to change a setting. I have no opinion of the ferro-check or the stability of the VDI, these elements are totally meaningless to me. There's enough variation using 6 tones that tells you everything you need to know. So going back to the original point of this whole blog post, I never would've touched this machine if my mind was closed and my perspective was narrow. I would've been too caught up in all the brand loyalty bullshit coming from the usual dull suspects online. For me metal detecting is there to be mastered in all its forms and the Legend is just another unit that has a place in my collection.