Not just good...a great detector!
I bought mine as a take on vacation unit only, but it was so good, so much fun to use and found me so much so easily that it became my prime hunting tool for 3 seasons used in rotation with a Vaquero and a Compadre.
I never thought of this as "just" a starter unit but instead as a top end unit just missing a few whistles and bells.
Unlike some brands where the lower end units are nothing like their top end cousins, the DNA that the Fisher line has runs through the entire line from bottom to top and they all work in a similar matter with a similar language and some shared behavior but the higher end units have more settings and power you can tap into and utilize.
Over 1000 hours with this one taught me that Fisher language well, plus I eventually discovered a hidden language that the Fishers have that can tell you much about distinguishing good targets from trash when you learn to swing at the right speed, maneuver the coil just right and watch the behavior of the numbers on the screen closely and also what is happening with the depth bar strange as that seems.
Many disagree with the depth bar thing, many believe that feature will tell you depth info and nothing else and many have argued with me on other forums about this but I stand behind my beliefs.
NOBODY argues with me about how good I got with this thing over the time I spent with it or the amount or quality of my finds.
My $200 F2 two coil package went on to find me over $2000 worth of treasure including close to $1000 in clad because it is a coin shooter supreme, many great and unique targets like some rare tokens, many older coins even though I rarely went after these target types, and tons of silver and gold jewelry which I was aiming for including gold rings with ice and silver and gold chains.
2013 was the year I went on a quest for gold and I found 12 gold targets 10 of those with the F2 and 9 of those gold targets with the sniper coil...a must have accessory if you hunt super trashy sites like I usually do looking for jewelry.
That white gold 14k ring with 9 diamonds you see in my avatar pic is just one of the targets I found that year in severe trash next to a basketball court, and this ring was appraised by 2 different jewellers to be worth every bit of $1300 if bought new by both.
Depth is going to be determined by your soil type as it is with any detector or brand.
In Alabama I got very little depth but it matched all other detectors including Minelabs, Whites and all other units because none of us could get much depth in that devil soil.
Here in my great Kansas soil the depth is way better with all 3 of my concentric coils, even the sniper can get to 6" and a bit more here on any sensitivity setting from maxed out to low, the 8" a few inches deeper and the 10" a few inches deeper than that, but 98% of all my finds including here in Kansas even at some very old sites usually sit no more than 6" deep or so...not all but most, so major depth was never a huge concern of mine because all my detectors and coil combinations can hit that mark easily.
Usually I knocked out iron and just went hunting, I don't come across many heavy iron infested sites, but this year I learned how to hunt in a severe iron site with my F70 and what I learned made me suspect that if I went back with the F2 and set it with nothing notched out that I just might be a little more successful than I was in the past with the F2 at this site...maybe.
As far as that upgrade to the F70...because of what I learned with all my time spent with the F2 the changeover was easy and effortless, although there was much more to learn with all those extra setting combinations possible and much more power, and all that prior experience helped me move along the F70 learning curve at a much faster pace than even I believed possible.
As I mentioned the basic language between all the Fishers is very similar, and so is the amazing rapid recovery and target separation abilities they all possess using just about any coil including the great F2.
There are some great entry units out there on the market nowadays, the Euro Tek Pro is probably at the head of the pack when you count all the features it has on board for the price, but I still believe the value of the F2 and especially with the multiple coil packages available cannot be discounted in today's market place when you really learn it's language and realize exactly how this thing works and the amount and quality of the targets it can find in so many difference kinds of sites.
I do know, and I will be forever grateful for the time I spent and the fun and experiences I had walking behind this thing for so many hours.
