Fisher F4
Street price $500
Number of Reviews: 5
on 1 pages.
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Fisher F4
Steve in upstate New York -
I have owned several brands & models over the 15+ years I have been detecting. I recently bought a F4 and I really like it. I do not favor any brand and I will not bash any brand. I will say that the F4 is a nice light well built detector that is very accurate id'ing targets (especially with the DD coil) and gets decent depth. The discrimination works very well, it is not an iron lover like some of the Fishers. In the first 3 or 4 days of use I have found over $20.00 in clad and 6 rings. When comparing to the Garrett Ace 250 (which I have had) the Fisher is a deeper seeker/better id'ing/and isn't as jittery. And the F4 has a 5 year warranty. You can get a 4" coil for under $40.00 which makes a great coin killer in trashy area's. I am more than pleased with the F4 it is a keeper. To sum up the F4 I would say it is like having a Tesoro Cibola with a target identification display, anyone that has used a Cibola knows how good that is. The reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is because a 5 star rating to me would be a perfect detector & there is no such thing as a perfect detector. Thanks! Steve.
Jul 13, 2007
13 people found this review helpful.
The F4....A very pleasant surprise!
Mark in NC in North Carolina -Normally we think of prejudice in terms of race or gender.... I have discovered it can apply to metal detectors as well. Whether the avid hobby detectorists want to admit it or not, we (myself included) can fall victim to bias and peer pressure. Peer pressure? Isn't that for teenagers and drinking, smoking, etc.? Yes....and it's also us and our feelings toward metal detector manufacturers.
If you closely follow the forums, or go to club hunts, you've no doubt heard people "slamming" Bounty Hunter. Why do they do it? Well...they tend to be less expensive, and sold in bulk at the mega-stores under various labels. Their quality and performance have been known to be decent, but occasionally (for certain models), unremarkable.
We, the "elitists" look down our noses and very quickly want to justify the large amount of money we paid for our brand X detectors... (costing 5 times as much). So, here we are...our snobbery, prejudice, bias and yes...peer influence in tow, we quickly want to dismiss any detector made by Bounty Hunter as "beneath us".... And boy, oh boy, is that a mistake!!
To clear some things up with this introduction, we need to understand that Fisher was purchased by a new parent company. That company is First Texas. First Texas also owns the Bounty Hunter and Teknetics brand, hence my long-winded soapbox rant above. The F4 shares certain physical similarities to the Discovery 3300 and the Titan 3000. Due to these similarities, instant bias begins. I've seen a lot of undeserved negativity from various folks about "Fisher bought by Bounty Hunter"...and that's not the case. They are both owned by the same parent company. This is a good thing! Fisher, Teknetics and Bounty Hunter are now backed by serious innovation, motivation and funding! The moral of the story...First Texas is dead serious about taking their labels into the realm of superb performance!
I've owned an F-75 since their release, and am still amazed and surprised by its performance. I started reading about the F4 a while back, and became curious about it, in part due to my great experience with the 75. The F4 is aimed at the "mid-level" market...a more cost conscious segment than those buying Explorers, DFX's, T-2's and F-75's.
I got my F4 about a week ago as of this review, and have used it approximately 16 hours so far. It has exceeded my expectations in every way. (see...I'm guilty of preconceived bias too!)
The F4 comes packed in a nice new style Fisher white box with "F4" stamped on the front. The first pleasant surprise I got when unpacking it was the high quality Fisher gold anodized rods and heavy duty plastic arm cup. It's the same one you see on the CZ-3D, Coinstrike and other Fishers. The next nice thing I saw wasn't a surprise, but cool none the less, was 2 included search coils. One 11" elliptical DD and also a 8" round concentric.
Pole junctions were very precise and tight, and the lower rod and coil fit is perfect. The detector housing looks great, and although I'm no fan membrane type buttons, these work great.
My first trip out to my test garden really, really surprised me. The F4 cleanly identified every target in my coin bed (with one exception), and very accurately reported the depth! The one exception noted was the nearly impossible (in my soil) 10 to 12 inch silver dime. (I say 10 to 12 inch because of sinkage...it started at 10) Although I could get the occasional audible signal out of the dime, it was nothing I would stop to dig in real life. In the F4's defense, the only other detectors that give a diggable signal on it are the F-75 and the Explorer 2... (and I've used a BUNCH).
Real life use of the F4 has proven it to be stable, reliable and rugged. It is also very lightweight! Hours of hunting without fatigue are easy with this machine. First Texas brands seem to be clobbering the market when it comes to light weight and ergonomics. The F4 is easy to use with its clearly marked buttons, and the discrimination and notching systems are superb. The DD coil allows you to hunt clad at break-neck speed, with the wide swath cut by the 11" coil. Tone ID is clear and easy to hear. The visual ID is dead on, and depth is very respectable... excellent for this price range. I've only ran into one site that gave me any RFI problems, and that was easily fixed by turning the sensitivity down.
Gold jewelry also detects very well, and the F4 hits great on rings.
In summary, the F4 is a great choice for anyone shopping for a good all around machine. It has a large number of useful options (notching, tone ID, visual ID, etc.) and won't break the bank. Will it replace my F-75? Well, no. However, it is an excellent compliment to it. It is also a testimony to the efforts the engineers over at First Texas are putting into their new machines. I would be willing to bet if you borrowed one from a friend, and actually used it for a while, you will be impressed. You shouldn't compare it to detectors costing 4 times as much.. (although it is competitive with some of them). I just want to see this great little detector get treated with the respect it deserves! I think we are beginning to see the "death" of stigma, bias and pre-conceived prejudice!
Jul 07, 2007
15 people found this review helpful.
Fisher F4 is way better than Bounty Hunter.......
Andy,NM in New Mexico -When i saw the F4 on the internet i thought it is just a repacked Discovery 3300 or Titan 3000. I was wrong. I got one of the first F4 and read on a forum that the factory has a recall going on for it. I drove to the factory ( a 1 hour 15 minute drive) and they updated the F4 for me.
The F4 comes with the 11" DD coil and a 8" round concentric coil in the box for $ 425. Some Bounty Hunter coils can be used too. The 4" gold nugget coil and the 10" magnum coil.
I'm a fan of small coils so i compared the F4 with the 4" gold nugget coil with the Ace 250 with 4.5 sniper coil. The F4 airtests about one inch deeper with the 4" coil. I picked up a US quarter at 7.5 inches in air with the 4" coil. That is very great, because you get outstanding target separation with outstanding depth (for a 4" coil). I use the F4 with the 4" coil at a local highschool to see how it does. I was impressed how quiet the F4 was at max. sensitivity and how many coins i found at a place that has been hunted by many local detectorists. Coins at 6" in ground...no problem. The motion All Metal Mode proved how close some trash items were next to the good coin signals.
If you put the 8" round coil on it you can pick up a US quarter at about 9.5 inches. Pretty good for an 8" coil. Next i tried the 11" DD coil and it picked up the quarter at about 12 inches.
US nickels will be picked up about an inch less than the quarter. US nickel are IDed great with the VDI numbers (100 !!!). Better than an Ace 250 from Garrett.
I don't really know to what detector the F4 compares.
It is better than the Garrett Ace 250. (Deeper, better ID, true all metal mode, ground balance for the all metal mode and a DD coil for bad ground).
How about the Whites Prizm line ? The Prizms are slower than the F4, the Prizms don't have adjustable GB and you can't buy a small coil for them. No DD coil either.
The F4 are not as hot as the F75 but they are in it's class by its own. They make great "do it all" detectors. I still have more testing to do but the first impression is pretty good.
Let me start with the hardware:
The F4 is a 3 pole design and the 3300 just a two pole.
The F4 has the better grip and armrest. The Fisher hardware seems to be the better quality and feel.
The F4 come with the 8" round concentric AND the new 11" DD coil.
Yes, the Fisher DD coil works on the 3300 two.
Now, is the F4 just a nicer looking 3300 ? No, it's NOT
I haven't had much time with the F4, but the differences are easy to see not only in the hardware, but also the performance.
First thing i noticed is that the F4 has target ID numbers from 0 to 99 and the 3300 has numbers from 0 to 199. Is that a good thing ? I don't know. Never had problems with the numbers on the 3300, but 100 numbers on the F4 is good enough.
Next thing i had to do is ground balancing the F4. That is a lot better and easier to do compared to the 3300. Just set the F4 to auto tune all metal mode, pump the coil up and down a few inches above the ground and turn the GB control with the thumb, until no change is heard while pumping up and down. New is also that turning the GB control clockwise sets the GB more positive. With the 3300 COUNTERCLOCKWISE is more positive (that was alway strange to me).
Since the 3300 has NOT a autotune all metal mode, you have to GB in pinpoint mode and lift the coil to waist level, change the GB setting, press pinpoint, pump the coil down to the ground and repeat that procedure until you found the right GB setting. Sounds hard to do, but is not too bad once you have done it. But not as easy as with the F4.
Next test was my 5" deep dime buried in my backyard. No problem for both detector even with the coil 3" over the ground. I noticed here that the 3300 gave the same target volume on the target, no matter how deep it is. The F4 sounds of on shalow targets loud and is quieter the deeper the target is. That gives some additional info how deep the target is you just found. Guys with bad hearing may like the 3300 better since deep targets sound the same as shalow targets.
Depth on both detectors is about the same. Using the 8" round coil on both detectors a Quarter on the ground could be detected at about 9.5 inches. Nickels about 9" on both.
But here come the biggest difference: The recovery speed and target response on the F4 is MUCH faster. Again, both detector tested with the same 8" coil. Here is where the F4 really outperforms the 3300.
On a Nickel, i found that the deeper the Nickel was the higher it read on the F4. Very deep Nickels read in the coin range (penny). The 3300 puts deep nickels (deeper than 5") in the iron range.
Due to the ground balance and target ID numbers the F4 performed better than the Garrett Ace 250. I'm talking about inground performance, NOT air tests.
The F4 is a very good detector in its class, i just wish First Texas would use a 4 AA batterie setup on the F4 and not two nine volt batteries.
I still have some testing to do how the F4 and 3300 work with the 11"DD coil and the 4" nugget coil (Yes, already available for both detectors).
Price: The Discovery 3300 is 299 $ at Radio shack with a 3 month warranty and just one coil. The F4 is 425 $ with two coils and 5 years warranty.
Whoever says the F4 is just a repacked Discovery 3300 is plain wrong.
Andy,NM
Jul 04, 2007
15 people found this review helpful.
A Discovery 3300 at 4 times the price.
Jim Laramore in Bristol, Tennessee -
After reading a review of the F-4, my hunting partner decided to buy one. It looks like my Discovery 3300 that came from Radio Shack that I paid less than $100 for. It operates just like it too. The 3300 at $100 is a great deal. The F-4 for over $400 is a steal also--Fisher stole his $400. It's a decent detector, just not worth the price. It would be a bargain if it was priced in the Ace 150 range, but there are many $400 detectors better-probably all of them.
Jun 27, 2007
6 people found this review helpful.
Can you say Bounty Hunter?
jackinoh in ohio -I get this detector and it is immediately recalled and dealers pull them from the shelf. That never happened before Fisher was bought by First Texas (a.k.a. Bounty Hunter.)
This one went to Ebay immediately. Fisher was once a great name.
Jun 26, 2007
4 people found this review helpful.
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