A Real User Review of Nokta The Legend Metal Detector, p. 3

3 main reasons to use the Nokta Legend for Coin/Relic Hunting

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• PRO #8:
The Widest Range of Customization with a Minimum of Necessary Features allows the user to program the Nokta Legend to perform a wide variety of coin/relic hunting tasks. They include checking questionable targets, verifying deep low-, medium- or high-conductive coins, improving iffy signals for investigation, verifying deep coins and non-ferrous relics producing 'iron' signals, verifying iron objects that typically produce false positives, discerning faint responses from desired targets by means of 'inverse modulation', discerning coins partially masked by ground mineralization, identifying hot rocks (if traditional methods are not mastered), discerning coins that are partially masked by iron but cannot be separated from it, making 'undetectable' targets detectable by increasing detection depth without destabilizing the detector, distinguishing orientation-sensitive non-ferrous targets from ferrous targets of the same type, verifying aluminum foil, coke and steel bottle caps, unveiling good signals by muting minuscule trash without losing detection depth, verifying deep sizable metal objects or masses producing the same signals as those of shallow small trash, etc.

For all common coin/relic hunting situations, the Legend can be customized to perform on par with its more expensive competitors such as the Minelab Equinox 900, Minelab Manticore, and XP Deus 2, and even outperform them in a few challenging coin/relic detection tasks.

The Legend's wide range of customization allows the user to create different combinations of settings (custom search programs) to successfully detect coins/relics of any specific type and conductivity under any challenging search conditions. It also allows the user to fine-tune the Legend to any particular hunt site at a professional level. I should note that the Legend user can easily store and access 16 custom programs! Among the most advanced metal detectors on the market today, this is the largest number of user created/saved programs available in a metal detector.

Of course, the user's proficiency level foremost determines how well any customized search program will work in the existing search conditions. However, the total number of essential features and modes involved in creating the user program also plays a big role. Simply because the more key functions are customized and the more complex they are, the higher the chance of user error.

Since I specialize in searching for coins and non-ferrous relics, I only counted those adjustable features and modes in the Legend that I typically use to program it for all the coin/relic hunting tasks, both primary and auxiliary, that need to be completed in my hunt sites. I came up with a total of 24 features.

For comparison, I have counted the number of features and modes in rival metal detectors, that I would have to use in order to achieve similar effects in their performance at my hunt sites (although some effects may not be achieved due to the lack of certain features or appropriate search coils).

Here is what I got: 27 features in the Minelab Equinox 900, 35 features (some very complex) in the XP Deus 2, and 43 features (including a few complicated ones) in the Minelab Manticore. Based on this and the fact that there has not been a single coin/relic hunting task I could not program into the Legend so far, I consider the Legend a winner.

Another important aspect of customizing the detector is to adjust it to one's personal preferences. Of course, personal preferences play a big role in your experience with the detector, especially if you have hearing problems. But if you are new to the hobby, it will take you some time to develop your own preferences through active use of the detector and experimentation with it.

The Nokta Legend can be customized to match any personal preference. The advanced 'Tone' settings again play an important role in this as they allow you to make desired and unwanted targets sound the way you want them to sound. This means that you can assign any audio frequency and volume to any conductivity range so that its tone is pleasant or more perceptible to your ear. The 'Tone' settings provide a wide choice of sounds and sound offsets to suit not only different search conditions and search objectives, but also any personal preference.

Users who have suffered some hearing loss, including the natural loss of ability to hear low and high frequencies with age, will find the Legend's 'Tone Frequency' feature helpful. For users who have permanent hearing loss, the Legend has a customizable 'Vibration' feature. It provides feedback to the user by producing a vibration effect in the handle when a target is detected. Some other features allow you to set the detector stability level according to your tolerances, adjust the display backlight level for better visibility, adjust the detector audio depending on the environmental conditions, etc.

The Legend's wide range of settings can satisfy even greater user preferences. If you have previously used an advanced metal detector for a long period of time and got used to its way of reacting to certain types of desired targets, you can simulate not only its audio, but also its behavior towards such targets.

For example, I can make the Legend respond to tiny hammered coins with the same distinctive signal as that of the Minelab E-Trac metal detector. Having become accustomed to the specific sound characteristics of the responses from hammered coins detected by the E-Trac, I will definitely not miss a single hammered coin when searching for such coins with the Legend!

Another good example is the simulation of the response of a Fisher F75+ metal detector equipped with a 15-inch search coil to a deep, medium-sized cache of coins. This case is a little more complicated than the previous one. It involves a medium-sized horseshoe buried deep enough to produce a weak response, and two cache simulators - a small 1-liter plastic container filled with copper coins buried 28"/70cm deep, and a medium-sized 2-liter ferrous can buried 35"/90cm deep.

Although the digital Legend does not have the same search mode specifically for cache hunting as that of the F75+, I can easily tune my Legend equipped with the LG35 coil (13.5x12.5" DD Elliptical coil) to indicate both 'coin caches' with a specific signal type which cannot be confused with the horseshoe response. As in the first example, since I know what signal to look for, I will not miss it or ignore it when coin cache hunting in real-life conditions.

It is important to note that the wide range of customization would not be beneficial if there was not a quick way to implement user search programs on the go while searching. Fortunately, this is possible with the Legend thanks to its user interface configuration (see details below). All of the Legend's competitors, except the XP Deus 2, do not offer such quick access to user programs and their quick activation.

All in all, the Legend has an advantage over its competitors when it comes to searching for coins and/or non-ferrous relics in areas depleted of clear 'coin-like' signals. This advantage lies in a combination of the user's ability to easily create a large number of effective custom programs, provided by the wide range of customization with a minimum of required features, and super quick switching between user programs.

• PRO #9:
Lightning-Fast Switching Between Search Modes - This is one of the Legend's important characteristics as it is the basis for the 'Search & Investigate' style ('S&I' style) in which quick verification of targets plays an important role during the search.

Checking and identifying targets is based on the 'Mode Comparison' technique. Only by quickly switching between different search modes, pre-customized to identify specific properties of the detected targets, can you immediately identify good targets among the 'difficult' ones that produce either 'iffy' or 'iron-buzz' signals.

Thus, being able to quickly switch search modes on the go, you can achieve the highest finds rate and the best results with the Legend at the so-called 'searched-out' hunt sites, or sites that are still frequented by detectorists. Since any former home/village site typically has areas of low, medium, and high levels of iron trash, the 'Mode Comparison' technique is an effective tool not only for checking questionable targets, but also for quickly identifying nails and other iron junk without using a shovel.

The 'fast mode switching' technique significantly increases the efficiency and practicability of the 'Search and Investigate' style of coin/relic hunting in "hammered" hunt sites. Only those Legend users who hunt in this style can still find coins and non-ferrous relics in search areas that have long been cleaned out of one-way and two-way repeatable non-iron signals. Detectorists searching such areas in the traditional style, i.e. using just one search mode with custom settings, do not find much.

Searching in the 'S&I' style involves performing a combination of the primary task programmed in the appropriate Search Mode (the 'main' search program) and various target-checking and other sub-tasks pre-programmed in 3 more Search Modes (functioning as sub-programs) available in the User Profile setting. This combination of searching and immediate signal investigation is only possible thanks to the user-friendly interface and 'User Profile' configuration.

Each of 4 User Profiles available in the Nokta Legend metal detector contains 4 customizable search modes (displayed at the top of the main screen). Quick switching between them is done by pressing the 'left arrow' and 'right arrow' buttons. Whichever is pressed first depends on which search mode is used as the primary one.

During the search, switching modes can be easily done on the go with your thumb, without taking your hand off the handle. To check a 'difficult' target, you press one 'arrow' button once to enter the search mode that you have pre-configured for this auxiliary task. In less than 2 seconds you can begin examining the target. Once the target check is complete, you press the other 'arrow' button once to return to the primary search mode and continue metal detecting.

I should mention one very important capability of the Legend, which all of its multi-frequency rivals do not have. If during the search you have fine-tuned the mode-based settings of any currently used search mode to suit the changed search conditions, and you want to save them in this custom mode slot (the Legend has 16 of them!), you do not have to press any buttons to do so. In the Legend, all changes made to settings in any ACTIVE search mode are saved automatically!

This is super convenient because you do not need to interrupt your search to 'dive' into the menu in order to save new settings, as, for instance, users of the XP Deus 2 multi-frequency metal detector must do. If the Deus user forgets to save the new settings before turning off the detector to take a tea break, he/she will have to adjust the same settings again after resuming the search.

The Minelab Equinox 900 metal detector has 8 preset Search Mode Profiles in which the user can modify and save, within certain limits, the current settings. But saving the customized settings is problematic because this requires pressing-and-holding the 'User Profile' button on the side of the control box. This cannot be done using just your thumb.

To save the current settings in the Equinox, you have to use both hands as you have to remove your hand from the handle to press that side-button while using another hand, that normally holds a shovel, to hold the control box firmly while pressing-and-holding the side-button. Of course, one can get used to this idiotic user-interface setup, so it is not a big problem.

The major problem with the Minelab Equinox 900 metal detector is that it does not have slots for saving custom profiles! The user can save only 1 combination of customized settings (1 'search program') to the 'User Profile'. And then the user can switch between only 2 different sets of custom settings: one in 'User Profile' and the other in the last-used Search Mode Profile.

One would think that at least switching between these two sets could be easy? No, because it is done by short pressing the same troublesome 'User Profile' side-button! In this case, lightning-fast switching between search modes on the go is out of question! Obviously, out of question is also switching between at least 3 custom programs - this is the required minimal number of custom sub-programs used for coin/relic hunting in the 'S&I' style.

If the Equinox 900 user encounters a 'questionable' target that requires a different set of 'target-checking' settings, the user will have to create and save that new set in the User Profile; thus, losing the current set of settings. If the user wants to activate a Search Mode Profile other than the one last used or the profile in the 'User Profile' slot, the user has to 'dive' into the menu.

It is not better for users of the Minelab Manticore metal detector as it also features the above-mentioned button on the side of the control box and, to switch to any other search mode, multiple button-presses are required. Its instruction manual does not even mention how to save custom search programs or user profiles! Why? Because this detector also does not have the ability to store customized search modes except for the current search mode that the user can modify and save as the 'Favorite' mode.

It appears that painless use of the 'S&I' style with the Minelab multi-frequency metal detectors is out of the question. Their users will have to dive into menus and tweak key settings every time they need to use a different 'target-checking' sub-program, conduct a different coin/relic detection task, or adapt the detector to changing trash conditions during the search. It seems weird that Minelab multi-frequency devices, which provide users with excellent tools for creating custom search programs, give no place to store them with easy access.

Of all the Legend's rivals, only the XP Deus metal detectors offer their users the same quick '1-button-press' way to navigate between custom and factory preset search programs while searching for coins/relics using the 'S&I' style. It is done by pressing the '-' and '+' buttons. The Deus has 12 slots to store custom search programs.

With the Legend, the conveniently configured user interface allows the user to quickly switch between 16 customizable search modes, factory-programmed with unique operating algorithms. This allows the Legend user to hunt efficiently using the 'S&I' style, quickly verifying good targets among 'difficult' ones on the go. This is especially important when coin/relic hunting in sites that have been cleaned out of 1-way and 2-way repeatable 'coin-like' signals.

The 'fast mode switch' technique allows the user to save a lot of time by not digging up the true ferrous targets that produce weak iron signals or using time-consuming methods to identify such targets, especially when there are many weak iron signals in the search area. While this technique allows the user to switch between sub-programs that make up a 'composite' search program contained within the User Profile, there is another beneficial navigation technique (see below) that allows the user to switch between different composite custom programs.

• PRO #10:
Fast-Switching Between User Profiles - This is another important navigation procedure that allows the user to quickly switch between 4 User Profiles available in the Nokta The Legend metal detector. Since each User Profile contains 4 customizable search modes that can serve as sub-programs making up a 'composite' search program ('main' program), the user can easily switch between 4 such programs on the go during the search.

Switching between two or three pre-customized composite programs is often required during coin/relic hunting in any former home/village site which typically contains areas of low, medium, and high levels of trash. Each of these areas has specific search conditions that require the use of a special combination of settings (search program) and the appropriate search coil to find coins/relics in this area.

I programmed my Legend with 4 composite search programs, one for each User Profile, to perform the following 4 main tasks in my hunt sites of former human habitation and activity: 'general coin & non-ferrous relic hunting', 'target separation', 'coin unmasking', and 'deep coin hunting'. So when I enter an area with different trash conditions or a different objective must be accomplished during my search, I quickly switch to the user profile containing the corresponding custom program instead of changing various settings in the current program. If necessary, I change the coil to the appropriate one and correctly re-ground balance my Legend.

This 'user profile switching' technique is not as lightning-fast as the 'mode switch' technique we discussed above; however, I consider it fast because it only takes a few more seconds to activate another 'main' custom program. To toggle between User Profiles, you navigate through them using just 3 buttons, and the total number of button-presses can be reduced to only 4 if you use a simple trick (it will be described in my future article).

Of all the Legend's rivals, only the XP Deus metal detectors offer their users easy switching between custom programs. In the Deus 2's sub-menu 'Programs', there are 12 empty slots for saving custom programs. Just like in the 'fast mode switching' procedure that we discussed earlier, the navigation through search programs in the Deus is done by pressing '+' and '-' buttons.

Switching between User Profiles with just a few 'button presses' on the go will allow you to continue to effectively detect desired targets without spending additional time adjusting and re-adjusting settings as your search conditions change. Plus, all changes to the settings you make are saved automatically! As you can see, the easy 'profile switch' technique gives the Legend user a great advantage when coin/relic hunting in variable search conditions and should therefore be used without hesitation. But I strongly recommend writing down all your combinations of settings and keeping them with you while metal detecting.

What should be PRO #11 is that of all the modern metal detectors, the Nokta Legend is the only optimal machine for coin/relic hunting in the 'Search & Investigate' style. Simply because the Legend is the fastest and most efficient detector when using any of the many 'S&I' style methods and tricks. By the way, the 'S&I' style is the only one that allows you to find all detectable coins/relics in any hunt site.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Author Info

Sergei UpstateNY

Sergei UpstateNY is the founder, designer, content writer, photographer and editor of MetalDetectingWorld.com. His main specialization is field testing of metal detectors and accessories provided by manufacturers in exchange for detailed test reports and articles published on this website. His extensive experience spans coin cache hunting, coin cluster hunting, coin shooting and relic hunting. Occupation: potato digger in farm fields.