Introducing the Deeptech Vista Gold
A high frequency multi task detector
The Deeptech Vista Gold running at 25Khz is a metal detector designed for ancient sites
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The deeptech Vista Gold is a metal detector I have been wanting to try for some time, the concept is something I would have designed myself if I had the electronic skills and facilities...lucky enough Deeptech.bg have done the job let's see what we have ! What makes the Deeptech Vista Gold different ?
In a word frequency, this machine is running at 25Khz which is very high for a VLF machine, according to electronic engineers, producing a high frequency metal detector above 19Khz for general searching is not a sensible option, unless you are searching for tiny gold nuggets.
Basically what you gain in sensitivity to small targets you can loose on depth, so based on that information this machine looks like it will have it's downfalls before it even reaches the field, or could the men in white coats with pens in their pockets be wrong....We will see later in the review !
Price £595
The Deeptech Vista is not marketed as the ultimate gold machine or indeed a metal detector for every environment, however it has been designated as a machine that will compliment most European relic and coin hunting scenario's and on paper looks ideal for locating our UK ancient coinage.
Build quality is adequate and compares to most other Eastern European machines, as with any machine there is always room for improvement, as we all know improvements always add to the retail price, so I am happy with this product at it's current price. The Vista Gold is light and well balanced I am hoping to use this metal detector on as many different sites as possible and give a comprehensive review based on my results as the season progresses,
so basically check back regularly as this review is on going and will be updated when I have further information.
Deeptech Vista Gold features and controls Target identification : Activated using toggle switch.
Single tone with conventional discrimination....2 Tone with iron volume control....All Metal, Discrimination range : The Vista Gold discrimination control adjusts the iron rejection range only....0 discrimination will accept all iron, maximum discrimination will reject most iron foil is still accepted at the maximum range which is perfect for most European search scenario's.
Small to mid sized nails are fully rejected at the 9 o'clock position, during my tests at home I found the Vista G had excellent potential for finding coins on or around nails in the fast recovery mode, equally as quick as other popular UK models. Sensitivity :
To a certain extent this will control the detection depth of the machine...however during my tests at home I found the Vista Gold would detect a small roman coin through a tub of mineralised soil on zero sensitivity...As regular readers will know very few machines pass this test. Recovery speed : Located on the face plate is a toggle switch labelled S and F allowing the operator to choose between slow and fast recovery speeds depending on site conditions, SLOW is recommended for areas of high mineralisation such as black sand, FAST is better for locating non ferrous targets next to iron and I would assume general searching in the UK. Ground balance : A correct ground balance is a vital component when seeking to achieve maximum performance, ground balancing the vista gold is very easy, if you are not sure how to ground balance the machine simply place the control at the 12 o'clock position will be adequate for most soils.
For the tekkies out there it rejects ferrite at about the 2 o'clock position Audio volume :
I found the audio volume control to be all or nothing...A fine touch was needed to get the level exactly right, I would suggest you run the machine at maximum volume and adjust your headphones to suit. Located just below the volume control is a small battery warning light. Lower toggle switches Right toggle : 3Search modes As you can see the vista gold has 2 lower toggle switches, on the users right is a 3 way switch selecting 2 tone (forward) All metal (middle) and single tone discrimination (back), it may be worth noting that discrimination can also be used in tone ID mode. Left toggle : Signal boost
The left toggle is a boost switch, backward is conventional search mode...forward is in boost mode, you can either search in this mode if conditions allow or use it to check deep targets. Control box rear : You will find the headphone socket, speaker and the coil plug, under the arm cup is the battery compartment which takes 8 AA's and the On / Off rocker switch. The search coil is a light weight 11" widescan. Weight with batteries 3.4lb
In the field with the Vista Gold
Field test part 1 Site conditions : Very hard to search land due to heavy iron contamination (small nails mostly), permission granted to search for 1 day due to crops growing.
I called Tony to ask if he would come along and help me review this machine in the field, it is always good to get an honest second opinion, especially from people who tell it like it is, if something is bad Tony will have no hesitation in telling you.
As a control we took along 2 other popular machines, simply to compare find rates.
With the Vista Gold running at 25Khz we were both expecting to find much smaller targets than our other machines and possibly get an ear bashing at the same time, I know from experience having used one of my recent machines at 22.5Khz can be a little nerve racking and counter productive as the machine can become "over active" and have a snap at everything.
The Vista Gold took a little time to set up correctly, the discrimination required an ultra fine adjustment different to how I set it at home during my preliminary tests. I wanted to hear the iron almost breaking through as a good signal but still be identifiable, placing the control to around the 9 o'clock position dealt with most iron,
sensitivity 12 o'clock and also the ground balance at 12 o'clock, boost off, trigger forward allowing 2 tone target identification.
The Vista Gold was surprisingly well behaved for a high frequency machine...nothing like what we had imagined I think the large 11" widescan coil softened the circuitry just enough to not be bothered by microscopic fragments and soil changes.....
As an experiment having detected my first very solid signal I turned the discrimination to maximum and found the target still sounded good, it was in fact a nice silver hammered coin which
made me think did I need to put up with iron popping when you can find hammered coins at maximum discrimination...Why be bothered by the iron when it is not necessary, as a compromise I ran the discrimination at just below the 12 o'clock position which resulted in a very smooth operation and nice clean target tones.
After an hour I placed all the controls back to how we had originally set them and gave the machine to Tony for his turn with the deeptech, he said that he had no doubts who was digging the most targets during that session !!
I took his machine and started searching again, when we met up again the Vista Gold had clearly produced the most finds, it was interesting to see Tony had adjusted the machine to exactly how I had preferred it.
We put our finds together for photo's and talked about the Vista Gold, Tony hit on an amusing point regarding our original "on the edge" machine settings.
To quote his exact words..."The harder you try with this machine the less you find, if you stabilise everything and search steadily the targets appear find you, rather than you finding the targets" !. Wish list
It would be nice to see an 8" widescan search coil option available in the future.
We had a great morning with a respectable amount of finds including 9 Roman coins and 1 hammered, some large pieces of Iron tricked us but that was quite acceptable for the site.
Definitely a good first outing with the Deeptech Vista Gold...describe it in one word....Fun !
Testing the Deeptech Vista Gold on a Pasture site
This second part of my review takes me to a pasture site where many of my metal detector tests have been carried out, the land is not very productive I would class it more as a place to enjoy the views and have a relaxed day. The fields are very short grass tucked amongst the rolling hills of the Chilterns.
I took the camera along and made a short film...well when I say short film the total time after editing was 28 minutes, sadly You Tube will only allow a maximum time of 15 minutes so I had no option than to heavily edit the footage and only include what I would class as interesting key points to the reader.
For those of you who have never made a detecting video let me tell you that wandering around with a video camera strapped to your chest is no fun, as soon as you dig the camera moves out of shot so your only choice is to detect looking through the LCD view finder.
The Vista Gold performed really well, as expected with this site no great finds were made but I did get a good idea of what this machine was capable of, the iron rejection worked well....overall the machine produced a very respectable performance, I learned one or two little tricks about using the machine along the way,
as with most multi-tone machines deep faint targets allowed a slight iron tone to just creep in. I found running in 2 tone really gives the operator lots of valuable information, it's still early days but I would say from my tests so far that the V Gold has a relatively short and easy learning curve.
Running at 25Khz one would assume the V Gold is not designed for pasture....however I found it behaved with impeccable manners, the boost feature worked well especially when checking faint signals....Again this machine inspired confidence and was fun to use !!
Below are two short video's on how the short session went, not the best sound quality and editing but I hope it will give you a better insight to what the DVG is capable of. Available from Deeptech BG - UK Price around £480.00
DeepTech Vista Gold metal detector images
More Deeptech Vista Gold information is available from the official UK web site
