Fisher F-75 vs White's VX3

Seems like a good comparsion as they are in the same price bracket.
Anyone have any experience with these two? (No guesswork please--I can do that)

I had both and used them both for..I loved the Whites for park detecting and schools and the F75 was a great relic hunter and did well with coins but at parks I dug too many pull tabs. I could on the vx3 95% of the time tell a coin from a pull tab by the freq.

LowBoy

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I have both the F75se and the V3i. The Vx3 basically is a less adjustable V3i. You basically get 4 less filters on the Vx3 compared to V3i, but guess what most detectorists really only use the filters provided with the Vx3 when using the more adjustable V3i. What will you be hunting? And where? The F75se is a pleasure to swing, Vx3 not so much weight/balance wise. If you plan to hunt primarily coins inside cities I would opt for the Vx3 for EMI sake. If I was going to primarily hunt relics in the countryside I would opt for F75se. The f75se is simpler to operate than Vx3 to me. The f75 is more energy efficient. Four AA batteries will last over 40 hours. The batteries in the Vx3 are not so good. And white's has started making a higher current battery they sell to replace oem battery. As a matter of fact a company is starting to market a l-ion for the Vx3. The color screen on the Vx3 is easy to see daylight and dark, sun or shade. The tones are fully adjustable on the Vx3. You get longer warranty with f75 as opposed to whites vx3. Target ID once learned on the Vx3 is better than f75 for those trash targets(gold excluded). I believe you get both the 11" coil and 5" coil with F75se for the price of Vx3 with 1 each 9.5" concentric coil. And the 5" coil on the f75 is deadly in trash and will fool you on how deep it will strike. They are both good detectors. Good luck in your decision.

I also have a f75 and a v3i and in my opinion the target I'd and separation for targets will be easier on the Whites. The fisher is a surpurb relic machine possibly the best with all things considered.I have found hundreds of Minnie balls at greater than 10 inches with both machines just pay attention to the fregency on the V3 when deciding whether to dig.I recently went all out on a ctx and firmly believe it is inferior to both of the mentioned machines concerning depth.if your ever in the Nashville/ Murfreesboro Tn Area drop me a line I have several machines and would be glad to let you have a whiz with them
Hope my info helps you with your decision

Silver master Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also have a f75 and a v3i and in my opinion the
> target I'd and separation for targets will be
> easier on the Whites. The fisher is a surpurb
> relic machine possibly the best with all things
> considered.I have found hundreds of Minnie balls
> at greater than 10 inches with both machines just
> pay attention to the fregency on the V3 when
> deciding whether to dig.I recently went all out on
> a ctx and firmly believe it is inferior to both of
> the mentioned machines concerning depth.if your
> ever in the Nashville/ Murfreesboro Tn Area drop
> me a line I have several machines and would be
> glad to let you have a whiz with them
> Hope my info helps you with your decision


I agree that the V3i will lock on better than the F75 (I had a T2 actually). But they really are different machines. I would go with the F75 due to balance if you have a touchy back but I liked the V3i more for coins, hands down. If you like playing with settings and being able to adjust a lot, the VX3 is the ticket. The F75 is much more turn and go imo. If you hunt where the soil varies a lot or is higher in mineralization, I think the VX3 might do better, that is iffy though as the V3i just couldn't get depth in my iron mineralized ground (but neither could the T2).

If you have bad ground (iron mineralized anyway) - Only the E-Trac and now CTX got depth. There are many other users who have said the same. I would try to find some experienced hunters in your area though, that could be quite telling and save you a lot of trial and error.

I am really curious regarding your ground silvermaster. You are telling us about your deep coins on the V3i and I just never saw it, but heard in mild ground it will go VERY deep. You are speaking highly of the V3i's depth and saying you have lots of experience but not listing settings, etc. Even though I know the machine well, it is a complicated beast and others would appreciate your settings (me too) to see how you got so much depth - and I tried everything and took some testers/mods suggestions into account to. They just said my ground was too much for it.

Since you have all the machines in question it would be nice for you to make some videos and list your GB readings from the V3i and F75's.

Albert



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2012 07:24AM by earthmansurfer.

I already have used an F-75.
That is not the point on deciding which to purchase as I really am not interested in this for purchase sake. However, one never knows.
We are talking two machines similarly priced, one with a vamped-up supercharged sensitivity single frequency vs a triple frequency thrower.
The question on weight is one pound.
The display is excellent on both.
Battery and battery-life...well you can go 40 hours on 4 double A's or get the optional recharge system for the White's. Merely choices in convenience.
Both have backlights.

So, the question is...machine vs machine in performance.

Thank you everyone for the above posts. I really have never seen these two compared and I do wonder.
Anyone with follow-up info...please I am all ears.

Albert I'll post my v3i settings after my wife gets back my machine is in her trk and my memory ain't so good no more.Remember I also spoke highly of the fisher and I like my etrac and overpriced ctx but I haven't ever broken the 9 inch barrier with them.
I have a 20 yr old test garden and feel I might be able to help sum of y'all out on some settings

The settings I use are 5band high pass filter- 5 band if emi is a problem and remember to slow sweep
Rx-8
AM-70
Disc-90
Gt speed-44
Now for the ground tracking do you trac to 0 with no offset?
In high mineral ground I set machine negative and I adjust positive in damp areas with no specific guideline just try till you get the hang of it.
I went on a group hunt in the fort donelson area recently and that's the worst ground I've ever hunted but with a - 18 ground offset I was finding Minnie balls at depths greater than 6 inches to the amazement of other club members.
After a little coaching my buds went to locating targets with ease and we had a enjoyable adventure.
Hope my input helps out!
30 yrs plus swinging!

Problem is....you guys are using settings and features of the V3I....and he is asking about the VX3. I have owned the F75 and was part of the test crew on the V3i prototype. I loved the V3I. I was forced to sell mine for the need of tires for my truck....and later on, the VX3 came out. I said to myself "now here is basically a stripped down V3i for a bargain price" and bought one. They aren't even close to one another in performance. The V3i is higher priced for a reason...the extra features and settings are what gives it the performance advantage. The VX3 wasn't as deep and didn't ID as well as the V3i did at depth. I even traded the concentric coil for a D2 like what was on the V3i and didn't see the depth I was getting on the V3i. I traded it with several coils for a T2 LTD and my coin and relic count tripled. The V3i can hold its own against a F75 or T2....especially in single freq mode with a few tweaks...and nothing fancy either. I never got involved with the tone assignment and all that stuff...but customizing a program like that would be very beneficial for hunting specific sites you might run into. The V3i in single freq with all metal audio ON was one of the deepest all metal machines I've ever ran...I dug some of the deepest minie balls with it that I've ever dug in red dirt with a VLF machine....in TN and Culpeper, VA. The VX3 wouldnt give audio on a silver dime I had buried in my yard at 6" deep IN ALL METAL single freq. The 3 freq at one time is not as deep as the single freq option on it. The V3I could....wouldn't ID it correct but would at least give audio on it.

Daniel - Thanks for mentioning that. I hadn't heard the VX3 doesn't get as good depth as the V3i. I mostly ran the 5 filter (which the VX3 has I think) and found the filters made the most difference regarding depth (outside of sensitivity).
I'm content with less controls on machines these days but liked a lot about the V3i, it was my soil that did it in. Miss that 3 freq pinpoint, that was really really nice to aid in target ID. I hope another manufacturer comes out with something as unique.

Albert

Well I'm going to disagree with coil fisher, the v3i-vx3 have the same insides, or motherboard so it will go just as deep as the v3i in 90% of the situations.

Great info. on these two detectors. I currently own a F75SE black and have owned two Vx3s in the past. I'll be repeating some observations, but it's worth repeating.

Ergonomics... F75 hands down. Although Whites detectors have always been well balanced and neither have caused me any fatigue. But for those with back, shoulder, or wrist issues..... F75.

Battery life.... Again, Fisher wins. No contest. Whites Spectra series are battery hogs!!!

Target ID..... Whites owns it... With the mult. Freq. pinpoint and Spectragraph.... Once you learn it, it's the best out there imo.

Standard coils......Again Fisher. Superb standard combo. of the 11"dd and 5" shooter is hard to beat. Although I have heard recently that the 10" concentric coil is a good silver sniffer. I've owned (and used) the 4x6 dd, 6x10dd, d2, 950, and 5.3 coils on the Vx3 with varying results. I preferred the 5.3 for the shooter coil and the D2 for standard hunting.

Real world iron hunting.... Everyone knows or has heard of the F75's capability in this arena. I've hunted with both in heavy iron and the 75 does very well. But I have pulled nice targets out of iron beds with my Vx3 as well. I would give the nod to the 75 for over all iron performance right out of the box, but there is something to be said about the V's recovery delay adj., mixed mode, etc.

Screen..... The F75SE has a well thought out, simple screen, and the large ID system is very nice. But the Spectra has COLOR... enough said..lol. I will mention that the Vx3s adjustable back light is a much welcomed feature. Ever hunted at night with a F75? It's lighted screen is a nice feature but definitely causes some night blindness.

Menus and adjustability........ Again, the F75SE is well thought out, simple, and user friendly. Personally, i prefer the Vx3s capability to customize to conditions and style of hunting... Don't want to hear that same nail a thousand times at the site your hunting? Or maybe that pull tab? Notch it out and keep all vdi numbers around it audible.... instead of notching a complete section like you are forced to with the F series. I will say that i would much prefer the V3i's capability to just turn off the audio of a vdi vs notching.

Sound.... To me the Whites is much more pleasing to the ear than the Fisher. I catch myself spending much more time over targets with the Fisher trying to discern if it is a good target or not. The Fisher can cause audio fatigue which has me (at times) second guessing if i am passing up good targets. The other issue i have with the Fisher is high tone iron falsing at higher sensitivities.

EMI...... Never had any issue with emi with my Vx3s. The F75SE can get chatty as we all know.

Depth..... The Fisher is definitely a monster in this arena. I've pulled .22 cal. bullets at 6-7" and rivets smaller than a pencil eraser at 4-5". I believe the V3i (with boost on) would be deeper than the VX3, and just as deep as the F75, but you better have a decent battery.

They are both excellent detectors and well worth a try for anyone looking for a quality detector for under a grand...

Personally, I would like to try the V3I with the white 10x13 sef.....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2014 02:21AM by triplehooked.

I used the F75 for 4.5 years. I bought the V3i a few weeks ago. It is a good machine. Just as deep as the F75. I adjusted the recovery delay for the trashy sites which helped in separation. Gives a lot of info to the user. I think the comparisons are pretty close. I'm not sold on the D 2 coil yet. Maybe with more time that will change. I would like to try the SEF coils on it.
Corey