Home » BlogPage 2

XP Deus the ultimate test

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
No Comments »

Not quite the Holy Grail of tests but a series of interesting metal detector tests you can try at home, we have used the XP Deus to demonstrate.
The video uses some standard test items to demonstrate the difference between 14Khz and 54Khz.

A Gold earring used in the test

We all have our own views on air tests and quite rightly so, the video below demonstrates how the different frequencies perform with mineralised soil thrown into the equation, and proves why you must take site conditions into consideration when metal detecting.

Highly mineralised soil tests.

Even coins and artefacts on the surface can be overcome with the ground signal.
Using a higher frequency can lift the signal back into the good signal range.

Please try these tests at home and discuss it on the Detecting 101 Facebook page or join our forum.

Here is the Deus High Frequency test video.

Metal detecting video tips part 2

OK so you have the equipment and you are ready to make your first metal detecting video, what happens now !
Just remember Whatever it is you’re producing, you’re not likely to be the first one to do so. The biggest challenge you will face is standing out from competitors in your field. What can you do to set your production apart from the rest out there ?

Times are changing I would be confident in saying approximately zero potential customers will likely read your thousand-word written explanation about why your metal detector is better than the next guy’s.
Visual content is so much more digestible, accessible, and shareable to the average person.
If you can, figure out a way to showcase your product or just yourself in a way that’s relatable and memorable.
Let’s go back a short step, I just said “why your metal detector is better than the next guy’s” which is something to give careful consideration, there is a very important question you need to ask yourself……What am I promoting ?

I am pretty sure you will be promoting something, that’s why you are making a video, are you promoting a product ?, are you promoting a particular skill, are you promoting a club ?…..Are promoting yourself !. If so this is the hardest thing to get right and if you get it wrong it will be a sure way of your viewers hitting the fast forward button.
As someone once said : Are they laughing at you or are they laughing with you ?

Ask yourself how many You Tube video’s are out there based on self promotion, sure some people are masters at this and do it in such a way you feel a connection with them, take Todd Roy for example a fast and witty comedian who you just love to watch, he is promoting himself but also telling a great story.

If you can pull it off, you will have them eating out of your hands and I wish you the very best. However if you don’t have Todd’s skills and charm…find another niche market.
Have you ever made a purchase just because you liked the personality of someone? this can be the same with visual content—perhaps a video—You instantly feel connected with them because they are just so likeable. Aim to create that kind of video content. If people decide they like you, they will be returning viewers.

Let’s not even go to the other side of self promotion : Glory hunters with a runny nose swearing and screaming down the camera on a windy field, yes we have all seen them. And I am not suggesting for one moment you are one of these people, but please be aware of what message you are portraying to younger viewers and possible future sponsors.

So basically to sum up this section, try to work out what you will be promoting and do it to the best of your ability, try to think how the viewers will interact with you.

Your ability

Be honest with yourself about your on-camera skills, if they are not great ask a friend who is more charismatic? Put him or her in front of the camera as the main character, you can still work as a team, but let them take the lead.
Talking into a mic and speaking to an unseen audience may seem easy, but it’s not. Do several takes, upload them all, and edit out awkward pauses and glitches afterwards. Practice trimming and splitting clips until your transitions look natural. Remember to keep continuity during filming, don’t change your shirt half way through.

The product

Make sure you know your product well, also never assume everyone else knows the ins and outs of your product, keep it simple and try to communicate with a wide range of skill levels.
If you’re marketing a metal detector try to create quality screen captures on video. Demonstrate the typical use of your product, but don’t jump right into it—use screen captures to demonstrate each point. If the viewer can identify with the item you’re showing them on-screen, they’ll be much more engaged.

Also let the viewers listen to the audio, rather than just showing you digging the target.

Viewer retention

Believe it or not, not everyone will like you or want to sit through your video, even if it is short. Why should they? There are millions of other videos on the Internet, and some of them even have large breasts in them.
Figure out what value your video is going to offer to your audience. Does it tell a great story? Does it explain how to use the product ?
Think back to the last video you shared. Why did you share it? Chances are, if you’re like most people, you wanted to establish your authority on the topic. You wanted to be the first to present that piece of information to the people in your hobby. It’s why most content is shared—for the social credibility.

It all depends on the type of video but it is generally said the ideal length of time your video detecting video should run is 8 minutes with an intro of around 10 seconds. This is the ultimate viewer retention time…which I partly agree with but not always, if you have changing content the video can hold a longer audience retention.

Get out there

You’ve created a great piece of video content that showcases your personality, explains what you’re doing, has a clear benefit, and tells a great story. What do you do next?
Okay, this one is painfully obvious—you promote the heck out of it right !……Yes and no, please be respectful where you post it, don’t spam forums and other social media sites, try to be discrete.
Export your video to more than one platform. Some people watch on YouTube, some will only watch videos on Facebook. Don’t limit yourself to one platform, or you’ll miss out on a huge number of potential viewers.

Metal detecting video tips part 3 will be available soon, so stay connected to Detecting 101

Roman pig / Ingot bids reach £38.000 at auction

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
No Comments »

This little piggy went to market !!

Sadly the item did not reach the reserve price, the auction lasted about 45 seconds, there were very limited bidders.
Bidding started at £28.000 and the 4th bid was £38.000, so the hammer went down at £38.000.
The Roman ingot
Earlier this year the Roman lead ingot or “PIG” was unearthed on a farm in Somerset.
The dig was organised by the Southern Detectorist club, some other nice finds were made on the same day, such as Dan Stevenson’s Silver Roman Hoard.

Jason Baker discovered the “very rare” find – known as a pig, and like most of us had no idea what it was.

The two foot ingot dates back to 164 AD and is inscribed with the name of emperor Marcus Aurelius Armeniacus.

Jason Baker had been searching with a faulty erratic search coil but had not replaced it, he said when his detector gave a loud sound I knew it was something good, “ I bet you did mate”.

When the Romans invaded Britain 2,500 years ago, they mined the lead, cast it into big lead blocks and put the emperor’s name on it and sent it back to Rome.

The ingot of Roman lead weighing six stone and two feet long is believed to be dated from around from 164 AD and is inscribed with the name of emperor Marcus Aurelius Armeniacus.
We would like to wish Jason all the best for the future.

Metal detecting video tips part 1

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: camera, detecting, film, how to, make a video, metal detector, treasure, video
No Comments »

Basic rules and equipment

There are so many metal detector users uploading metal detecting video’s to You Tube these days it is very difficult to stand out from the crowd, OK none of us are going to be film stars but there are some rules to follow in order to make your channel interesting to the public…Remember : The You Tubers worst enemy is the fast forward button !.

I am by no means an expert on the subject and my experience is very limited compared to professionals, but hopefully with a bit of luck this article will give you some ideas and give you an insight into the correct set up and more importantly how to create interesting work and hold on to an audience.

Structure

Before you even go out with your camera you need to have a rough idea what your metal detecting video or channel will be about…will it be based stories, technical items, will it be about you, your detector, your club and so on.
Remember you are trying to stand out from the crowd so some discipline and a professional outlook will be required, not to mention financial input.
You will also need to be prepared to go in front of the camera, initially to introduce your work, then some pieces to camera as your video gains momentum…A video showing a coil swinging and a muffled voice is not really what the public want to see, try to interact.

Look what I have found video’s
These are video’s that show the coil swinging and then someone holding a coin or artefact….What happened in between the sweep and the find ? the most interesting piece of work has not been shown !. Try to engage with your audience by showing the sweep, let them hear the tones and see you excavating the item.
OK now you are getting a rough idea what needs to be done in order to make your masterpiece, and you are probably thinking this is beginning to sound like hard work….You are right video making, even on a totally armature level is hard work but worth the effort.

Cameras

A reasonably good HD video camcorder will be the one to go for, If you are serious about your video making find one with a hot shoe and an auxiliary microphone outlet.

Why not use my smart phone or tablet ?

A phone camera is not very good, focus is slow and the shaky footage is not going to get you many clicks. Remember the first rule of filming…Rubbish in = Rubbish out.
If your video sounds rubbish and looks rubbish, it will finish rubbish.

We use 2 camera’s the Sony PXW X70 and the Sony NX30, both are great units, the NX30 is smaller and much easier to travel with, both have fantastic stabilisation systems. These camera’s are overkill for You Tube video’s but are also used for promotional film work within the company.

GoPro

Yes these are action camera’s, they have no zoom, and can be fiddly to operate, but on a plus point they have several accessories available. Providing they are set up and mounted correctly they can obtain good results. If using these action type camera’s we strongly recommend you invest an external audio source, which can get a little messy when editing in post.

This video was shot using a Gopro and an external sound recorder and joined together in post.

Sound quality

We can not emphasise how important good sound quality is to your video.
Sound quality is equally as important as video quality, nobody wants to watch a video with the wind howling in the background or the subject sniffing because he has a runny nose.
Earlier we mentioned the importance of a microphone outlet on your camera, this allows you to plug-in external microphones from powered Lavalier to radio microphones.

Shotgun microphones can be used if you want to capture the ambience such as a rally or trade show, but for most videos a lavalier / lapel mic is the best choice.
If you are filming outside always use a wind shield on the microphone, this is known as a “Dead Cat”, these are quite expensive to buy but worth the investment.

External audio source

You can always record your audio on an external audio source, some people use their smart phone, this way works but is harder work as the audio and video must be exactly synchronised together in post.

If you want to go down the radio microphone route look at the Sennheiser radio models, but take care of frequencies, some are forbidden to be used without a licence, find out about the free frequencies and licence laws for your country.

Tripod – Always try to use a tripod whenever you can.

The footage is much cleaner, walking around with go pro’s strapped to your chest or your machine are fun but not ideal, remember you want to be professional. This set up is ideal for “B” roll which we will be talking about in another article.

Video editing software

You need a good video editing software so you can edit your footage, commonly know as post production, or post.
You can get away with cheaper software, but what you can not get away with is a slow or under powered computer, windows lap tops can really struggle with video editing, unless you are prepared to spend £1000 plus.
You really need something with an i7 processor, at least 16GB of Ram and a high spec graphics card such as an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, and at least 1TB of storage.
Top video editing suites are Adobe Premier Pro CC and for Mac users Final Cut Pro

That’s just a very small insight into what equipment you may need to make semi professional video’s which will hopefully soar up the You Tube rankings and say goodbye to that fast forward button forever !.
Next we need to look at presentation and location.
Part 2 of our Metal detecting video tips will be available soon.
Latest news !!!
Be sure to check out our new Detecting 101 Facebook site
Detecting 101 Facebook Group

Top metal detector dealer web site review

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: detector, detectors, france, maison, metal, shop, xp
No Comments »

Building a metal detecting web site – a quick guide

Looking through hundreds of metal detector dealers web sites is now a part of my job, some are good while others are still stuck in the 90’s.
Occasionally there is a web site that ticks every box and gives the wow factor, the Maison De La Detection web site in France really impressed me, these guys have a good eye for design and know how to engage with the public it hits an easy score of 10 / 10.

It’s no surprise that these are probably the biggest dealer in France, just look at the work they put into it and the attention to detail.
http://www.maisondeladetection.com/

So what makes a good web site ?
Several things : For example if you are selling products you need to get all the important information up there without your site appearing cluttered, after all it is your shop window.
Above you can see how this is a perfect example, clean and precise.

Interacting with your public
Facebook and Twitter is a good social media platform but don’t rely on it solely as your empire, always put your web site first…Remember Facebook and Twitter can be removed in seconds…think about it.. you have no control over it. You can’t call Facebook to discuss problems, all you get is a generic Q&A, so it’s always good to remember this phrase – “Never build your empire on rented ground”.
It may also be worth noting you can spend a lot of time deleting Facebook comments and irrelevant posts, which is time that could be spent on your web site.

The guys at Maison De La Detection have got a good balance and a very active following.
This all takes time but in today’s world of social media it has to be done.

Regular web site updates
Always keep the web site fresh with regular updates and special offers. Video’s are king, the public would much rather watch a video than strain their eyes looking at a large block of text, however the video’s must be good quality with interesting content and if possible no longer than 8 mins long.

Impressive pictures
It’s worth investing in a good camera and photo package, spend time watching video tutorials on how to use it’s features, learn about depth of field and special effects, these all make your pictures stand out from the rest. Don’t be tempted to upload super high quality images, Google does not like web sites that are slow to load, so try to find a sweet size for images.

So congratulations to Maison De La Detection, you get my top vote, sadly I can’t understand a word of French but I can see it’s a fantastic piece of work.

We would appreciate it if you could subscribe, like and sign up for regular Detecting 101 e-mail updates

Metal Detecting 101 Social Media Links

Mirak Metal Detecting Boots

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: boots, detecting, hildreths, metal, prestwood, strong, water
No Comments »

I am always in the market for good metal detecting products

Goot footwear is a very important part of my kit, most of the time I like to use lightweight metal detecting boots, they must be light – strong – water-resistant.
Over the years I have always used Brashers, my recent two pairs have fell apart within 6 months, I really don’t want to bad mouth the company but for me the Brasher relationship has ended.
I met up with a friend of mine who is the manager of Hildreth’s Stores in Prestwood, Buckinghamshire, 01494 862720, he always gives me good honest advice about outdoor clothing….in exchange for good honest advice about metal detectors. You may see me wearing the Regatta Fleeces in my video’s, once again great advice from Martin, they have served me well.

Hildreths Garden Centre Prestwood

The Subject got onto boots and the name Mirak Nebraska Boots came up into the conversation, he went on to say that the customer feedback so far was very good and priced at only £56.00 I decided to give them a try as I was no longer going to pay over £100 for another pair of metal detecting boots that fell apart after 6 months.

So what about the Mirak Nebraska Walking Boot

I am usually a size 8, but found the 7 fitted better, they are lightweight and feel really good, even better when you fit Scholl gel insoles, which I highly recommend.

The in step is slightly raised and very solid I’m confident it will take spade pressure with ease, the tread is very chunky and looks like it is built to last.

Time will tell I guess but for that price if I only get 6 months out of them it will be money well spent compared to my recent metal detecting boot purchases. So far all I can say is they are very comfortable and just “Feel right”

<br />

We would appreciate it if you could subscribe, like and sign up for regular Detecting 101 e-mail updates

Metal Detecting 101 Social Media Links

Metal Detecting – Dinosaurs

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: detector, deus, metal, minelab, Tesoro, test, Whites, ws5, xlt, xp
No Comments »

Metal detecting has been a part of my life for over 22 years

I have so many conversations with my friends reminiscing about the old days and how we made more finds with our old machines, some of it was very true…we did make some great finds, how much is simply looking at the old days through rose-coloured glasses, was that hammered coin in 1992 really 14 inches deep and so on.

I am lucky enough to still have some of the old detecting dinosaurs mothballed in the cupboard, and true enough, each and every one has made some very impressive finds over the years.

The Minelab Explorer II
This has done some work, I got it from a guy in the club, who has now sadly passed away, he regularly had find of the month with this machine, it was worked every weekend and never cleaned, I gave good money for it as it was a “finder”…I have a theory on well used machines, to me it is a sign of someones first choice, a well used machine is normally a good one, or a lucky one depending on how you see things.

The Whites XLT
Another well used ugly duckling, the guy before me had found two hoards with it and I wanted some of his luck, once again, never cleaned but a good finder, I can remember having a pocket full of Roman coins with this very XLT along with some fantastic artefacts.

The XLT still has a Hinkley Search Society rally sticker on from 2001

The Tesoro Silver Sabre
Void of any original paint and held together with camo tape, I fitted a manual coil tune control to it many years ago which I never used. This machine really did the business years back and found stuff the modern machines had left, I did a review on it Here is the review

OK so what is this article all about ?
I wanted to go down memory lane and see if I could re kindle my old love affairs with these machines, each machine would have 30 mins detecting time…followed by 30 mins with a modern metal detector, I chose the XP Deus lite with the WS 5 headphones.

My task was to see if these Dinosaurs could compete with today’s modern metal detectors.

Site conditions : Not a great field for finds, the stubble was well-rotted with bare patches, iron contamination pretty bad.

First off was the Explorer II, using an open screen, conductive and 28 sensitivity.
I thought the weight would be a problem, but it was fine, the Explorer II picked out some nice small targets with a low grunt, overall I was pretty pleased with it and thought to myself I should use this more often.
Then it was time for the XLT, Relic plus program
This machine really did show it’s age, finds were noticeably less and the audio very twitchy and uncertain, it really was not happy on this site.
The Silver Sabre, using disc 0 and sensitivity maximum
Once again it really showed it’s age, I just couldn’t get the feedback from it, which is something I have become comfortable with over the years, it was so silent to use and the experience can only be described as cold and un inspiring.

Then I fired up the XP Deus Lite with the WS5 headphones, program 2 (Gold Maxx Power ) and changed to 2 tone

Instantly the whole field started talking to me, lots of Iron grunts and the non ferrous targets came through like switching a light on, I felt that I had to work very hard for signals when using the older machines, but the XP was like a magic carpet ride, it was literally doing everything for me, all I had to do was dig !

My conclusion based on todays test
As you can imagine there are so many factors to take into account, coil size, frequency, price, are my machines past their best, etc, and no dis respect to them, they all have places where they would really shine, but on this field the only one that inspired me was the XP, followed by the Minelab Explorer II… So are modern machines better than the oldies…..you bet !….the oldies are still fun and will find stuff, but if you really want to get your head down and maximise your finds rate, based on my tests today, I personally think modern machines are King, with better feedback and information, better target separation, the overall experience is far more engaging.

Detecting finds after 30 minutes with each machine.

We would appreciate it if you could subscribe, like and sign up for regular Detecting 101 e-mail updates

Metal Detecting 101 Social Media Links

Metal Detecting show in Paris

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: aka, C scope, metal detecting show, minelab, Nokta, paris, xp
No Comments »

I had an invite from XP to be their guest at the Paris show, as it was our anniversary I asked Lyn if she wanted to go to paris for the weekend…great she said so I had a result ! The metal detecting show was called the 1er Salon de la Detection, it is a 2 day metal detecting meeting and held on the first floor of the Novatel hotel just East of Paris centre.

The organisers got it right, from what I could see these guys knew what they were doing, all around I could hear great interaction and comradery between those who attended, I was really amazed to see such great support for the hobby in France…when metal detecting has so many archaic laws.

I worked mainly on the XP stand and it was a great pleasure to talk with people who have watched my video’s and read the reviews…I was even asked for autographs and offered beers.

It was really good to chat with the manufacturers
Dilek from Nokta is a great ambassador for her company and really has her focus on future developments….I still think she should be on the cover of a beauty magazine and not promoting detectors… 😆

The guys from C scope were there I had a talk with Martin and Paul who are looking at some new idea’s for the very near future, C scope are one of the last UK detector manufacturers to survive and have always been known for excellent build quality and reliability, it’s good to see they are still in the game and I look forward to hearing from them soon.

Minelab had a representetive from Ireland helping out on the Minelab dealer stand, nothing new from them just yet, I asked about a mid range machine or upgrades to the CTX but nothing as of yet.
There were to many trade stands to list, I will make a short video to compliment this excellent event.

What about XP metal detectors ?

These guys are really sparking at the heels, lots of new products due for next year, we have the Deus version 4 update, a new coil, a new pin point probe, a Hoard Hunter, plus some other innovative idea’s I can’t talk about, but rest assured these guys are busy.
The French detectorists really did the hobby proud and I really hope they can get some suitable treasure act agreed very soon.

Oh yes I sampled some Deus beer to !

I didnt get too much time to talk with Alain, he was so busy talking to people I thought my questions could wait until another time, I’m sure he will be visiting me soon for some detecting.

We would appreciate it if you could subscribe, like and sign up for regular Detecting 101 e-mail updates

Metal Detecting 101 Social Media Links

Clairvoyant talks to Roman soldier

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: brooch, clairvoyant, metal detecting, roman, soldier, tweezers
No Comments »

I Recently had a meeting with a lady who is a clairvoyant, at the end of our talk we got onto the subject of metal detecting

We and started talking about my finds and interesting experiences, she then asked if it would be possible to see some of my finds as Psychometry was her specialist subject.
I showed her some coins, then a set of Roman tweezers that I have had for over 10 years, she held them in her hand and went very quiet, after a short time she looked up with a satisfying smile and said I have just been having a fantastic conversation with a Roman soldier…in fact he is a Roman surgeon.

I was blown away and wanted to know more, she went on to say he was called Marcus and in his time was very respected in his field, his speciality was wound infections, he discovered that stuffing the open wounds with Garlic would drastically minimise infection, he had his own workshop where he made potions and remedies for the fallen Roman soldiers.

The clairvoyant said these tweezers had operated on many people, sometimes successful…sometimes not, he metioned that I found them very near to a wooden Roman hospital where Marcus often worked. They were lost along with some other items in a leather pouch, he said he was very pleased I found them, but would love me to find the other items because one in particular was very special to him.

I asked what it was and the clairvoyant said it was a brooch, a very special brooch

Marcus was awarded the brooch for exemplary conduct in the battlefield, I asked was it like this…showing her a fibula…no no she replied it’s round with writing around the edge and a gem in the middle, get me a pen and paper I will draw it for you, and she did, along with some other items lost in the leather pouch.

My final question to Marcus was….Do you have any objections to me finding your items ?
He replied, Gary I had a fantastic life, with a loving family I am so pleased you found my tools and remember the next time you are near to the find spot let your mind be guided I will be there, you need to find my brooch.

Wow…whether you believe in this or not you have to agree we could all do with our very own Marcus when out metal detecting.

Minelab CTX 3030 WM-10 repair

Categories: Metal detecting Blog
Tags: battery, ctx 3030, detector, metal, minelab, repair, wm10
No Comments »

Minelab CTX 3030 WM-10 repair

My Minelab CTX 3030 WM-10 unit has been fine for 2 years, it has not given me a sign of trouble, the battery life has been good, it held a charge….then all of a sudden nothing…it went dead !
Not wanting to spend £180 on a new unit I decided to have a look and try to find out what was wrong, perhaps a wire had come loose.

The WM-10 cordless headphone unit was opened by removing the 4 screws to expose the board and other components….Now be very careful at this stage as things are pretty tight in there and the battery wires have a specific path from the battery to the board.

How to fix the WM-10 cordless headphone unit

Dis connect the battery carefully, taking care not to damage the white connector back as you may need this when you buy a new battery. In my case I cut the new connector block off and used my wiring and block as the new one was the wrong size.

Carefully take the felt pad from the old battery and stick it to your new one, and assemble, making sure that the battery wires fit in the exact position they came out.
I got my battery from E BAY for £7.00, it is a higher capacity than the Minelab one and should last for many more sessions, possibly out of an RC helicopter or Drone.

Take care Lipo Batterys can be dangerous

As always take this repair on at your own risk, battery’s can be dangerous, charge the unit up for 3 hours during the day when you are around and never leave it on all night.

I accept no responsibility if it all goes wrong, all I can say is it worked for me and saved a fortune.

Here is a video showing how simple the operation was.

We would appreciate it if you could subscribe, like and sign up for regular Detecting 101 e-mail updates

Metal Detecting 101 Social Media Links

123 4