Fisher F2
Street price $200
Number of Reviews: 29
on 3 pages.
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F2 excellent choice for starter machine
Steve in Ohio -
Had my F2 for 2 mos now, about 40 hours in on it so far. Sold my Tesoro Silver uMax to try a TID machine. All in all, I'm very pleased with the results I get with the F2. Very quick response, and I find the pinpointing to be excellent - spot on. It is not quite as deep as my Silver was, but I am much more productive in my hunts, thanks to the TID. Don't let anyone fool you (like the reviews from Jo) it's plenty deep for a starter unit, and the build quality is perfectly fine. It's NOT an Explorer - but then it's only $199 too. For depth, I pulled a nickel at 7", and an Indian head (my 1st) at 6" with the 8" concentric. Haven't tried the 4" or the 10" yet. You can do a lot worse than the F2 - it's a very hard machine to beat for the price and performance level.
Apr 14, 2009
20 Yes
0 No
Poor Detector No depth just fancy features
Big Jo in CA -
Got this F2 used it for one day. Wouldnt see a coin past 4 inches. Id would jump around alot very chattery unless sens was way down. Poor build quality overall junk. Sent back got a Tesoro Compadre instead way better and less money.
Apr 07, 2009
4 Yes
43 No
Worst Detector ever rebajed Bounty Hunter
Jo in Ca -I already owned the ace for a while and can say it was an ok detector. The things that were good about the ace was the acuracy of the id on coins. Also the depth and quality was good for the price. The things I didnt like about it were the hard pinpointing and the difficult targetting. So I sold it. Then I bought the Fisher F2 wich turned out to be a real peace of crap. It's 100 percent bounty hunter. No depth shaddy pinpointer and eratic ids with little accuracy. Wouldnt see a Coin past 4 inches. So I got a Tesoro Compadre and like it better than the Ace 250 and Fisher F2. So the question is the Ace better than the F2 is sure is no mistake. But the Tesoro Compadre is better than both for less money.
Apr 06, 2009
4 Yes
35 No
I LOVE MY NEW F2
twofast in tn -Well my verdict on the F2 is in, I got the one with the optional 4 inch coil, and I love it, this thing is a coin killer!!! I have owned a fisher 1236 and a F4, both of which just went to path of ebay, I currently own a Nautilus dmcIIb and still learning how to use it lol, and I got a tesoro cibola with my F2 because I was getting frustrated at my nautilus, I have all these machines, and the F2 is a blast to use, I'm so amazed how quickly you can find coins with this machine, it blows my f4 out of the water, maybe its becuause of the small coil on the f2, but wow, this thing will sniff out change. Its not the deepest, and today I found 2 mercury dimes with my Cibola that I'm not sure my F2 would have found, but anyone who wants a great detector for coins, this is it...WOW 200 bucks, I will say if your looking for relics, this may not be the set up for you, but if you like finding coins, this thing will make your back hurt bending over and digging solid signals, coins range from 1" to 6" Quarters being on the 6" side, dimes in the 3 to 4 "
Mar 26, 2009
17 Yes
0 No
After a full season
Dave in Eastern Canada -After a full season using the F2, I'm pleasantly surprised. It was my first detector and early on I was wondering just what I was missing. Well, I don't think a whole lot, after scoring some nice pieces down past the 10" mark.
Pros: Good depth. No problem reaching 6 - 10 inches on coin and button sized relics(max measured depth 11" on a tombac button), larger iron down over 22"
Fairly accurate ID(once you get used to it): The F2 can give you surprises, my best find of the season didn't ring in like I'd expect. However, you can start to see the trends in how it reads. I still dig everything however.
Batteries seem to last at least 6 - 10 hours.
Cons: I like to run the F2 at maximum sensitivity when relic hunting. It seems in damp conditions the machine can be chattery, but not impossible to use. Also, even in dry conditions hitting larger stalks can cause a beep on occasion.
Larger iron will give you varying signals. Which can be good, I got a solid nickel signal at max depth which turned out to be a nice cannonball. However, if your like me, you get tired of digging all that scrap iron. At least you pick up the axe heads etc.
It ALWAYS falls over!!!
I'd recommend this machine to any beginner. While I will likely upgrade to another Fisher, this machine will be my backup!
Dec 17, 2008
22 Yes
1 No
Dollar for dollar..........impossible to beat
Jason M. in Hershey Pa -I am new to metal detecting and I spent about 2 weeks deciding to get the F2 or an Ace 250. I went with the F2 just beacuse it does as much as the Ace yet does it more simple. Less tone differential and target Id's.
I too was a bit frustrated when I first fired my machine up. The target id and tones were all over the place. Once I turned my sensitivity down, picking up accurate targets was a breeze. I rarely use the pinpointer on this machine because you really don't have too. It's recovery/seperation time is so fast that once you get a target all you have to do is decrease the size of your swings and it narrows down the targets location all by itself. I'm tellin ya.......accuracy with simplicity makes this machine such a great beginners device. I am so glad I went with a F2.
Dec 11, 2008
26 Yes
0 No
Pretty good
dwayne in canada -My first detector and had moderate expectations for a 200 dollar detector. But I was pleasantly surprised how well it works. Very easy to use and get going. Takes a couple of outings to really get a feel for it.
I agree 4-6 inches you will get accurate readings. Below that it can be off. You will get a feel for it after awhile.
For a cheap detector I think its well built and will last a long time.
With headphones batteries last quite long.
I would highly reccomend for a first detector. Lots of fun to use.
Aug 24, 2008
19 Yes
0 No
Great value for money
Severin A Eskeland in Akershus, Norway -I love this detector, superb value for money. Go easy on the sensitivity if you are having problems with false signals. Many of the new Fishers are not ment to be used at highest sensitivity and I think this is the cause of some negative reviews. People who are used to search with full sensitivity need to realize that the Fishers are tuned for super sensitivity at this setting and that you need to tolerate more false signals.
Jun 07, 2008
24 Yes
0 No
Back from repairs and much improved
Skillet in Central Texas -
Some time back, I posted a review of the F2 and rated it pretty poorly. I sent it in to Fisher for evaluation, it has been repaired (Apparently, a chip had gone bad) and I'm happy to report that performance is much improved.
I put the machine through some routine tests that I use on all of my machine (13 at last count) and here is what I found...
1) Airtests are an inch or two further out than before on most of my test targets (small lead shot, rings, coins etc. I keep charts on all of my machines on disc).
2) Now it will hit that 5.5" buried dime. Target ID is correct. (Before, it would sound like iron and the cursor would jump all over the scale).
3) Will hit pretty much every target in the test plot as well as any other machine. The targets it misses are the ones that only my Explorer can hit.
A couple of cons with what appears to be a 'fix' for one of them...
1) Target depth was still off in pinpoint mode. 5"+ targets would still meter between 3 & 4 with the coil dead-center over the target and touching the ground. This puzzled me, as the machine would accurately gauge distance with a coin on top of the ground and the coil up in the air... just seemed to go south with buried items.
I then found out that the depth readout was much more accurate if I held the coil abt an inch above the ground while pinpointing. In other words, don't touch the ground with the coil. This is a bit different from the way my other Depth-Readout machines work, but I can live with it. Doing this, a 5" deep target meters 5". Success!
2) Target separation seems decent/above average. Let me explain how I test my coinshooters:
I have a test card with two pulltabs glued 7" apart, with a dime centered between them. I'll pass the coil of the machine I'm testing over the 3 items with zero discrimination I will vary the speed and distance if need be and check for the best response... my better machines will give-up three distinct beeps, the F2 gives one beep with the large coil, two beeps with the small.
I will repeat the test at 'pulltab' discrimination (everything up to and including pulltabs disc'ed out).
My better machines will give-up a solid tone on the dime. The F2 makes no sound with the big coil. The tabs completely mask out the dime.
The small coil will give a two-way signal if I scan very slowly. This is superior target separation compared to my 250 with the 'sniper' coil.
Again, repeat at 'zinc-penny' disc. Results are the same with the small coil hitting well with a slow scan.
Now target separation is pretty big for me, as I pull in abt $400 - $500 a year in just clad. This is usually in pretty extreme modern trash. In the past, I sold my GTI 1500 and a Discovery 3300 for poor target separation etc.
I decided to try a couple of hours of hunting 'in the wild' after work yesterday.
I used the larger coil on a site that used to be a road-side rest stop. Plenty of trash there but I know that there should be plenty of coins left too. Long-story-short, I pulled abt a dozen coins to include a '53 wheatie and a Canadian penny. Spent around an hour here and this is the first wheat I've found here. Tall grass made for slow-going or I would likely have done better.
Next stop was the grassy area next to a ball field that I've thumped pretty hard with several machines. I wish I could say that I found a slew of coins that the other machines missed, but it wasn't to be. I found out, however, that I could scan up right next to the chainlink fence, without falsing with the sensitivity set at 4-bars. Tossing a coin next to the fence revealed that I would miss the coin if I walked straight along the fence and scanned perpendicular (as most do), but if I scanned parallel to the fence, it would hit coins much closer to the metal and uncovered a crusty clad quarter that I'd missed before. Knowing this, I reduced sensitivity to 2-bars and proceeded to find another clad quarter practically under the metal fence. One more quarter (which I had to swing short and tight to ID and pinpoint) was found, surprisingly out in the open, and then it was time to quit and head home.
My second 1st impression:
Fisher has attempted to introduce a full-featured for $200 that would be competitive with higher-priced offerings... it looks as though they have succeeded! I'm not too happy about the original performance issues (Dead coil, bad chip, armrest mounted off plane) but those have been corrected satisfactorily.
Garrett may have stolen a little bit of Fisher's thunder with the 250, which came out first, but a $200 machine with so many features is definitely good news for the hobby. Someone looking for an inexpensive first/backup machine could do worse, I'm thinking. Still getting used to that pinpoint-threshold sound that sounds unsettlingly like the Frankenstein Monster being brought to life...
It seems that there are two classes of F2's in the hands of users right now: the ones that work as they should, and the ones with performance problems and need to go back for repairs.
It's a shame that they don't all seem to work as they should, straight from the factory. Fisher has missed an opportunity here to perhaps equal or eclipse the popularity of Garrett's "Ace" machines.
The F2's, all done right from the factory, would have the potential to become 'instant-classics'. Instead, you have posters from both sides and they kinda' cancel each other out.
Mine came with a dead coil, bad chip and armrest mounted crooked. Now it works really well. Because of necessary repairs to a 'factory-fresh' machine, I'm giving only 3 stars.
That's all I'll say because that's all I know (for now). I will be using the F2 more in the future.
May 02, 2008
68 Yes
2 No
A GREAT all around detector
David Hicks in Amherst, NS -As a newbie to the metal detecting world, I did a lot of research of brands, features etc before settling on a final choice. My budget allowed for roughly $300, and while the Fisher F2 wasn't recommended, the price was right ($225 Canadian), it came with a second smaller 4" sniper coil, and those that cared to review it said positive things.
Well, I agree!! While it took a little trial and error to get used to this detector(And detecting at all), the F2 quickly showed me it's potential.
Pros:
1. Good price
2. Good target readout - does take some time to get used to what exactly the machine is telling you.
3. Very easy to use.
Cons:
1. Very sensitive - Wet areas and black sand will drive this machine nuts.
2. While I've only done minor testing, I haven't found a target much below the 5" mark, and self tests using newer coins won't pick up below 6". This was using the smaller sniper coil.
If your looking for a great first detector or a great backup at a good price, this is the one for you!!!
Apr 17, 2008
7 Yes
2 No