Fisher F75 Review

Fisher F75 Overview

The Fisher F75 is a metal detector boasting lightweight and efficient design, and stunning stable workflow. While there are no specific settings for gold prospecting and saltwater metal detecting, this machine can show decent operation for both purposes. Newbies might have some headache trying to make head or tail of the settings, but eventually hich chances they will manage. Being universal at use, F75 is especially a good metal detector for coins and relics, due to its sensitivity and accuracy.

This multi-purpose metal detector was first released in 2013, and all machines have an impressive 5 years warranty underlining their sturdy design and stable reliable software. The machine is powered by 4 AA batteries, and its battery life is another truly impressive feature – it is around 40 hours with high quality alkaline batteries, 65 hours with lithium ion disulfide batteries, and up to 80 hours with nickel oxyhydroxide batteries.

Control Box

The control box for F75 is rather primitive, but on the other hand, it is easy to cope with. The controls on the box are as follows: On\Off and Volume switch, Dual function Trigger Switch, Menu button, and Settings knob. In contrast to many modern metal detectors that have lots of separate buttons for separate features and functions, Fisher F75 allows to tune the settings by choosing options on the screen.

The screen is a backlit LCD display with lots of indicators. The display itself has the next sections: Target ID numerical legend and segments, Depth indicator, Target Confidence indicator, Discrimination, Sensitivity, Notch Discrimination, Ground Balance, Warning messages section, Search Modes, Magnetic Mineralization level, and Battery charge. While the controls are easy to master, the indicators require some time to get used to them. However, the good news is that Fisher Labs gives a detailed instruction to all settings in the user’s manual.

Fisher F75 Features

Since Fisher F75 is a beginner-friendly metal detector which, on the other hand, is also created for underwater metal detecting and even gold prospecting, it is only logical to expect some more advanced features in it. However, beginner metal detectorists should not be discouraged, because the features and functions are comprehensive and manageable:

• VDI Target ID – this feature assigns numerical segments to spotted targets depending on the type of electromagnetic response the metal detector reads from the target, which, in its turn, depends on the suggested chemical composition of the item. Visual ID is always handy since the detectorist can get more information about the target and make a more informed decision on whether to dig it or not
• Ground Balance: Automatic / Manual / FastGrab – Ground balance is an important function, and in the Fisher F75 metal detector, there are tuning options for different levels of skills. While Auto is good for beginners, Manual settings can be used by more experienced detectorists
• Pinpoint mode – this feature allows spotting the targets more accurately before digging them
• waterproof DD search coil – while having only the search coil waterproof is not very cool, it still allows wet sand and grass detecting and shallow underwater detecting. Moreover, the DD configuration is known as versatile and stable in operation.
• Frequency shift – extremely useful to avoid electromagnetic interference and noise it causes
• Notch Discrimination – very handy to discriminate – or, on the contrary, to spot – very specific metals by fine-tuning the Discrimination
• high Recovery Speed – many users claim that F75 is one of the fastest metal detectors in the niche in the terms of Recovery speed, which allows the machine to quickly process response from different targets and therefore give separate signals for each target

FASTGRAB Ground Balancing Feature

FastGrab feature allows to switch on and tune the Ground balance quickly by simply pushing the trigger switch and pumping the search coil above the ground. This feature makes GB setting and tuning fast and easy, instead of bothering with the menu settings and choosing numerical settings the newbie usr may fail to understand.

Please keep in mind that FastGrab will not automatically balance if the soils are highly conductive. To cope under such conditions, choose the relevant Search mode, or  tune the GB manually.

Fisher F75 Coils

The default search coil you get in your new Fisher F75 kit is the waterproof 11-inch DD elliptic searchcoil. Its size, shape, and configuration make it fit for various terrains, conditions, and targets. Being waterproof, it lets the detectorist search on wet sand, dirt, grass, or underwater, even in saltwater. This coil gives decent maneuverability and depth, and, as all Fisher search coils, has a separate 90 days Factory warranty.

There are two other compatible search coils for metal detector Fisher F75 ltd:

• 5 inches round DD coil, waterproof, with 90 days factory warranty, perfect for small jewelry and gold nuggets
• 6.5 inches waterproof elliptic search coil created specifically for smaller targets like coins and relics
• 15 inches DD Deep Seeking waterproof search coil gives impressive depth which is out of reach for many beginner-level detectors. It also gives excellent separation for targets located nearby

Fisher F75 Settings

To be honest, despite the fact that F75 by Fisher is not stuffed with tons of special and exclusive features, the settings can be a bit complicated, especially for a beginner treasure hunter. In this section, let’s look at some settings recommendations to keep in mind.

False Signals

False signals do not always mean breakage; in fact, most often they do not. There are several reasons for experiencing false signals – interference from mineralized soils, from trash and metal items around, from power lines, or even from other metal detectors around. One of the ways to avoid it is to use Frequency shift. If the Frequency shift does not work much, try reducing the Sensitivity rotating the Settings knob to the left, until the noise disappears. Wait for 7 seconds and let the metal detector return to normal operation.

Manual Ground Balance

If you need Manual Ground balance to tune the metal detector for specific search conditions, select Manual GB function; when the GB settings legend appears, you can choose within the range from zero to 99. Next, pump the coil up and down above the ground, and change the settings until the false signal totally disappears. Please keep in mind that over some soils, the signal never disappears completely.

Sensitivity Settings

Some beginner detectorists decrease the level of Sensitivity to avoid noise and signals from trash. However, very low Sensitivity will also silence faint signals from potentially valuable targets, and decrease the depth of reach. In Fisher F75, there are two stages of Sensitivity: low gain from 1 to 29, and high gain from 30 to 99. If you want to decrease the level of Sensitivity and you need to cross the 30 mark, you may want to retune the Search mode. Such low sensitivity will help avoid overload over mineralized soils or in saltwater. You may also want to keep an eye on the Ground Balance settings if you cross the mark down below 30.

Saltwater Operation Settings

F75 was specifically designed for operation in saltwater, and while it shows decent Discrimination and balancing under such conditions. However, you may want to additionally silence the saltwater response by decreasing it below 30, then Ground Balance the metal detector, and then set the Discrimination higher than 25. These measures will prevent extra noise, will stabilize the machine, and will give you some Discrimination – as decent as possible, depending on the environment.

Fisher F75 VDI Chart

To help the metal detectorist identify targets more accurately and take more informed decisions about whether to dig or not to dig a specific target, Fisher added a VDI chart table for various targets. Check it out to get a bigger picture of how the machine reflects different types of items in numerical values.

Fisher F75 Problems

Fisher F75 ltd metal detector is a nice metal detector, but since there is nothing perfect in this world, there are also problems with F75.

One of the most obvious problems is that the metal detector is outdated in terms of technology and software. The model was released back in 2013, and it could have been kept competitive but for the software which cannot be updated online. Of course, when the F75 Fisher metal detector hit the market, updatable software was only an option. However, by the time of writing this Fisher F75 reviews, other companies have raised the bar for the whole industry of hand-held hobby metal detectors, and updatable software is a must-have today. So, F75 is a high-quality machine, but outdated if compared to other machines, and this issue cannot be solved as Fisher F75 upgrade is impossible.

Another problem some users complain about is metal detector Fisher F75 being noisy and chattery. There are several probable reasons for that – electromagnetic interference, ground minerals, hot rocks, cavities, or extremely highly tuned Sensitivity. Most of the time, the machine becomes chattery because beginner users fail to master the settings correctly. As soon as the detectorist gets used to their machine, and cope with the tuning, the noise becomes a rare issue.

And eventually, there is a problem not connected directly to Fisher, but all potential buyers should be aware of it. Experienced detectorists in the community report that there are many counterfeit versions of the F75 in the market, sold by uncertified “retailers”. So, we highly recommend purchasing F75, or any other metal detectors and accessories, from reliable dealers who are official partners of the brands.

Tips & Tricks for Fisher F75 Users

Treasure hunters who really want to understand their F75 and master the learning curve fast will benefit from a couple of Fisher F75 tips and tricks explained below.

When dealing with the Ground balance, you may want to consider the Positive and Negative Ground balance. When the soils are highly mineralized, ferrous, and have many hot rocks around, the user may want to set a slightly positive Ground Balance, which will make the machine perceive the “hot” soil as normal, and spot any “cold” objects which are less mineralized against the background. If the soils are non-mineralized, the user may want to set a slightly negative Ground Balance, to make the metal detector perceive the environment as normal, and make the “hotter”, more mineralized items pop up against the background.

If you have lots of “cold rocks” which are usually black, heavy, and have rust on them, you may want to double-check them with a magnet, as many gold prospectors do. Positive rocks also called “hot rocks”, are iron-bearing and can sound like gold nuggets, especially due to the fact that they are often encountered in gold-bearing areas. They are not always attracted to the magnet, so they are harder to discriminate against. In this case, you may want to double-check the Target ID, and explore the rock with the search coil. If the signal is not stable and non-repeatable, it is not worth digging.

Fisher F75 Accessories

As you already know, F75 does not have headphones in the kit, so if you would love to use headphones for detecting, you will have to purchase them separately. Please keep in mind that wireless headphones technology is not available. Also, please remember that only headphones with a stereo plug will work for F75; headphones with mono plug will not work. Also, F75 is to be used with wired headphones where the cable is shorter than 10 feet. The following headphones are available:

• Fisher Stereo Headphones, not waterproof, lightweight, and handy in noisy locations
• Deluxe Stereo Headphones, not waterproof, giving clear high-quality sound and minimizing any noise from the outside

Besides headphones, there are really few other accessories you can get. Most of them are coil covers and spare parts.

Fisher F75 Kit

The kit for F75 is very humble:

• metals detector
• 11 inches DD search coil
• warranty certificate
• user’s manual

If you want something more, check out offers by your local retailers. They most likely have bundles with merch and accessories included.

Fisher F75 Manual

To learn all the details and nuances of Fisher F75 metal detector, check out the user’s manual before you even purchase your own F75. Reading the Fisher F75 metal detector manual is reasonable to make sure you comprehend all the settings, and that the functions will meet your actual needs when treasure hunting. Fisher F75 is a high quality machine, but you never know until you check the tech specs and instructions.

Download Fisher F75 Manual