Not impressed

I don't think the issue here is, will the 7000 invigorate old patches, that's a red herring, the real issue is where is the bloody 40%!!!!

Going back to Cal's original post, he can't see at this early stage any benefits over the 2300 and 5000 other than having them both in one package.

Cheers

Icepick,"Are people expecting to much for their money?" The answer to this question is "NO" What they are expecting,is to be able to see,or get,the results Minelab themselves have been stating. Something of which,we're not quite seeing,nor hearing of at the moment.(Too much grey fine print,in the background to read ) Only time will tell,as more results keep flooding in.

Cheers Kon.

Remember Minelab said "up to 40% under prevailing conditions" maybe the conditions are not prevailing enough

There's not a doubt in my mind as to zed beating the 5 hands down in small gold at shallow depths. 44 nuggets for 15 grams showed me this as well as testing over undug gold targets. But gold at significant depths is what we're all waiting to see. I'm not interested in comparisons to the sdc.

Agreed Jase and your results on the smaller shallower gold,are more than good enough for me.Hopefully someone here,honestly fills us in on that "significant depth" on larger gold part. Time will tell.

Cheers Kon.

kon61 wrote:Agreed Jase and your results on the smaller shallower gold,are more than good enough for me.Hopefully someone here,honestly fills us in on that "significant depth" on larger gold part. Time will tell.

  Cheers Kon.

Kon, are you the fella I met on Banjawarn st several years ago?

We are all asking a question, which has still not been answered and that Question is why have all the Testers stopped talking???

In the first couple days after the GPZ was released I spent around 4 to 5 hours a day answering questions on various Yank forums and this one. I don't have that kind of time to spend all the time. I have not stopped posting and neither has Steve, but we are posting more on Steve's forum rather that this one. You are more than welcome to pop in there and just see what is going on. JP is posting some things there too.
You can see also I've been a member here for about 4 years but only have 81 posts - many of which have been in the last couple weeks concerning the GPZ. On some of the Yank forums I have over 1000 total posts. I am just not that active here generally. I value my Aussie friends but know the blokes on the Yank forums much better.
Another thing is that a large majority of comments about the GPZ on this forum have been complaints about the price, and I just have nothing to add. As a field tester, I tested it in the field. Price considerations are a corporate staff decision, so I really know nothing more than you all do about the price. I found out what the price would be when everyone else did.
Finally, I can tell you that there never will be one universal opinion on the GPZ. When the 5000 came out a number of detector operators posted that they thought the 5000 no better than the 4500 (deutran just pointed out this very fact). When the SDC 2300 came out, there were plenty of operators who posted that the 5000 with an 8 inch coil was just as good on small gold. In time it has become the general consensus of most prospectors that the 5000 with its new timings is better than the 4500, and the SDC is hotter on small gold that the 5000 even with the 8 inch coil - but some still think that the 5000 is not that much better than the 4500 and that the 5000 is as good as the SDC. Its not universal - although there is a general agreement, there is still debate. And so it will be with the GPZ - there will be debate. The greatest amount of debate will come in the first weeks after the GPZ has been released, so we are right in the middle of that stage.  
I have posted my honest opinions after using the GPZ as has Steve and JP. Others will soon be posting their opinions and I am glad they will be doing so - even if they disagree with me. However no one will be able to turn all the opinions into one universal view - there will be pro and con. Potential buyers will just need to consider all the opinions and perhaps give one a spin for themselves if they get the chance.

Thanks Chris,

For your Honest Answers and yes I know there will never be a Universal opinion on the GPZ, as with all the other Models before it. Thanks for your wellcome Invite to go onto yours and Steves site as well, your Input on these matters is very much Appretiated.

Thanks again Chris.

Regards.

Mike.

Yep,that was me Jase with Dave and Bill. I certainly can't forget a gentleman and then some Jase. I never got the chance to pay you back for bailing us out with some of your tobacco at the time.(Remember?)
Appreciated both your time and company out there m8.

Cheers Kon.

used to be newbie wrote:There's not a doubt in my mind as to zed beating the 5 hands down in small gold at shallow depths. 44 nuggets for 15 grams showed me this as well as testing over undug gold targets. But gold at significant depths is what we're all waiting to see. I'm not interested in comparisons to the sdc.

Thanks, used to be a newbie (boy that's a mouthful) we need more reports like this, takes that lemon flavour away.
Cheers

kon61 wrote:Yep,that was me Jase with Dave and Bill. I certainly can't forget a gentleman and then some Jase. I never got the chance to pay you back for bailing us out with some of your tobacco at the time.(Remember?)
Appreciated both your time and company out there m8.

Cheers Kon.  

Ah thought so mate haha yep I remember well about the tobacco Kon, you quit yet?. Hope to see you back one day mate.
No probs alchemist I wish it wasn't too hot and too far to travel to some deep grounds where I've got good bits. I'll try to organise something if I can.

goldnomad wrote:I was one of the testers. What do you want to know?

Not being smart but when the SDC came out you were one of the anti SDC commentators from memory. After a bit you took one out to test & then made comment about it having no tuning etc. Basically you hadn't bothered to read the manual at all & didn't know some of the basic functions - not having a crack but that is correct?
My question is did you read the manual prior to these tests & how many hours were spent becoming familiar with the GPZ & it's controls or was the testing done with no prior familiarisation etc. Again I am not trying to be smart & don't doubt yours or other testers abilities/experience but I reckon it's very relevant to any tests being done as to machine knowledge & familiarisation prior to testing i.e. I don't think tests straight out of the box should hold much, if any, credibility no matter who does them.
Being a new machine/technolgy I think it will take time for people to nut everything out? It may not be what everyone expected but it's a bit early to write it off completely yet?

With the SDC we seen some people hated it straight away & some people loved it. Some could only get bird shot with it immediately, others picked up multiple sub gram nuggets within minutes. Early love/hate reports were no doubt based on early experiences & the GPZ, will no doubt,  not be any different. Some disappointed their old patch hasn't been re-opened with the GPZ - others ecstatic at the early results they are getting.
It seems on Aussie forums we always focus on the bad & disbelieve or take with a grain of salt the good?

Unfortunately,bad habits die hard Jase,but I 'v happened to limit them to a couple of rollies,with a couple of coffees a day.Some day,who knows,our paths might cross once again,in the search for the "Golden Ointment".
Well said Reno Chris. I know we all apreciate your valuable time and input on this forum,regardless of how sometimes,our questions come out.

Cheers Kon.

UTBN wrote:There's not a doubt in my mind as to zed beating the 5 hands down in small gold at shallow depths. 44 nuggets for 15 grams showed me this as well as testing over undug gold targets. But gold at significant depths is what we're all waiting to see. I'm not interested in comparisons to the sdc.

When you originally worked the patch with the 5000 what was the smallest size coil you used and has the patch seen a SDC over it, this is all very relevant i feel.

cheers

Considering the new machine is running what essentially is a DD coil and can match the depth of a similar sized mono says to me there is a definite improvement in performance. It will be interesting to watch this machine evolve over the next couple years.

Robert has confirmed he was involved in the tests.....
Robert is what I would regard as a very experienced detectorist and he has given me many valuable detecting tips by private message on this and other forum......
If Robert was involved he would not have carried out those tests with anyone that was not already experienced with the 7000 and you can draw your own conclusions from that...he may not however be in a position to disclose .......its like walking on broken glass at the moment for anyone to comment....some who have connection don't wish to 'offend' Minelab, whilst others including me cannot understand why testers who have had them for a while are not or will not report anything unless of course they are under a gag/confidentiality notice...I know of one tester interstate and I can't even allude to which state he is in for fear of some reprisal against him......
When a new car is released, motoring writers all get to sample/drive and then report accordingly...been that way for years.....apart from any independent testers we must rely on possibly three or four to carefully drip feed us homogenised milk..........is it any wonder its frustrating in our collective search for info....$10,700 is not insignificant....as usual it will be classed as whinging to seek reliable information and ask questions....the buyer is not always right, but the buyer always remains the buyer....many Company's forget this.. often to their marketing disadvantage....Hoo Roo

Troopy wrote:

UTBN wrote:There's not a doubt in my mind as to zed beating the 5 hands down in small gold at shallow depths. 44 nuggets for 15 grams showed me this as well as testing over undug gold targets. But gold at significant depths is what we're all waiting to see. I'm not interested in comparisons to the sdc.

When you originally worked the patch with the 5000 what was the smallest size coil you used and has the patch seen a SDC over it, this is all very relevant i feel.

cheers

G'day for the patch which was a virgin patch that I found 2 weeks ago I used firstly a 16 round mono when I found it. For the gold that kept coming out i noticed that they were relatively small. I stopped with the 16 and used the 11" round after briefly using the 17" nf eleptical. 11" is even more sensitive and for this patch most ideal. The patch of gold was confined to a tiny area at a guess, 50sqm or there abouts. I got in excess of 150 nuggets. I gridded this thoroughly.
Settings used for the 5!
Search mode-general
Soil timing-fine gold
Audio type-normal
Gain-18
Stabiliser-10
Motion-very slow
Audio tone-62
That's the main settings, the rest irrelevant.
Yes I ran the 5 very hard in this ground with it being very sensitive. I don't like leaving gold for others!
Obviously in this highly mineralised ground I got numerous hot rocks with the 5 too.
I'll get 2 photos of the gold found with the 5 hopefully put up by davsgold here.

And also 2 photos of zeds gold after.

I did not test the sdc on this very patch.
But I did in another area not far away when sdc had come out after a couple months. The reason I tested sdc was because of 6.5 ozs of gold of various sizes that I found on the other side of the hill. Sdc got me 7 targets from memory and I wasn't inpressed with it. I'm still not to this day. Yeah it does get odd bits the 5 misses I'll concede that.
Davsgold I'll send pics thru mate.

Well Dave's not home so can't put up pics yet

Here are the pics Jase asked me to post up for him

larry303 wrote:Robert has confirmed he was involved in the tests.....
Robert is what I would regard as a very experienced detectorist and he has given me many valuable detecting tips by private message on this and other forum......
If Robert was involved he would not have carried out those tests with anyone that was not already experienced with the 7000 and you can draw your own conclusions from that...he may not however be in a position to disclose .......its like walking on broken glass at the moment for anyone to comment....some who have connection don't wish to 'offend' Minelab, whilst others including me cannot understand why testers who have had them for a while are not or will not report anything unless of course they are under a gag/confidentiality notice...I know of one tester interstate and I can't even allude to which state he is in for fear of some reprisal against him......
When a new car is released, motoring writers all get to sample/drive and then report accordingly...been that way for years.....apart from any independent testers we must rely on possibly three or four to carefully drip feed us homogenised milk..........is it any wonder its frustrating in our collective search for info....$10,700 is not insignificant....as usual it will be classed as whinging to seek reliable information and ask questions....the buyer is not always right, but the buyer always remains the buyer....many Company's forget this.. often to their marketing disadvantage....Hoo Roo

And you know what Larry I heard there were problems too. Last time I mentioned that some fool started stalking me and having a crack at me. I think it was someone who doesn't even detect so no dramas there.

Troopy wrote:

When you originally worked the patch with the 5000 what was the smallest size coil you used and has the patch seen a SDC over it, this is all very relevant i feel.

cheers

Yes, I too feel this might be relevant. I don't think the performance of a detector should be judged by what it finds but what it misses and the only way of determining this is by going over various patches with a combination of coils and different detectors to see what's really been left behind.

Last season I tested out the (then) new SDC and took it over to a area where I picked up dozens of small gold nuggets just the day before using a 5k and 8x6 NF coil. As expected, the SDC found heaps more that I'd missed. I then went over the area again using the 5k and small coil combination and as expected, more nuggets turned up.

I ended up not buying an SDC, not because I didn't feel it wasn't much better than the 5k, but because I felt the extra gold it found above and beyond the 5k did not justify the extra expense. It just didn't suit my requirements or style of detecting. I spend most of my time searching out new ground and don't really care if I leave the odd porous piece behind.

As with many prospectors, any upgrade is ultimately an economics consideration. How much gold is my 5k (or SDC) leaving behind that the 7k will find and does this extra gold justify the extra expense. And as I've said before, 10.7k is not chump change.

Absolutely spot on to the guy with weird name

UTBN wrote:

Troopy wrote:

UTBN wrote:There's not a doubt in my mind as to zed beating the 5 hands down in small gold at shallow depths. 44 nuggets for 15 grams showed me this as well as testing over undug gold targets. But gold at significant depths is what we're all waiting to see. I'm not interested in comparisons to the sdc.

When you originally worked the patch with the 5000 what was the smallest size coil you used and has the patch seen a SDC over it, this is all very relevant i feel.

cheers

G'day for the patch which was a virgin patch that I found 2 weeks ago I used firstly a 16 round mono when I found it. For the gold that kept coming out i noticed that they were relatively small. I stopped with the 16 and used the 11" round after briefly using the 17" nf eleptical. 11" is even more sensitive and for this patch most ideal. The patch of gold was confined to a tiny area at a guess, 50sqm or there abouts. I got in excess of 150 nuggets. I gridded this thoroughly.
Settings used for the 5!
Search mode-general
Soil timing-fine gold
Audio type-normal
Gain-18
Stabiliser-10
Motion-very slow
Audio tone-62
That's the main settings, the rest irrelevant.
Yes I ran the 5 very hard in this ground with it being very sensitive. I don't like leaving gold for others!
Obviously in this highly mineralised ground I got numerous hot rocks with the 5 too.
I'll get 2 photos of the gold found with the 5 hopefully put up by davsgold here.

And also 2 photos of zeds gold after.

I did not test the sdc on this very patch.
But I did in another area not far away when sdc had come out after a couple months. The reason I tested sdc was because of 6.5 ozs of gold of various sizes that I found on the other side of the hill. Sdc got me 7 targets from memory and I wasn't inpressed with it. I'm still not to this day. Yeah it does get odd bits the 5 misses I'll concede that.
Davsgold I'll send pics thru mate.

cheers for the reply UTBN, from some of the reports the 7000 is picking up the smaller gold at a greater depth than the SDC, beats stuffing around with 2 detectors or multiple coils, certainly a great option if just starting out in this game but for those with a lot of money invested already i can see why people are having reservations.

"Well this is not surprising to hear.. been checking out what others are saying about the 7000 on some other gold forums and there are quite a few owners that are already not happy with their new machines. I'm reading people asking for their money back and cancelled orders on the 7000. What the hell, its hasn't even been a week since it was released, are people expecting to much for their money.."


Is this the reason for the $500 non refundable deposit?

Spoke to our insurance agent today about putting the gpz on our contents,he said we go can't go $10700 the best we can offer is $5000 ive been reading some of the feedback

goldchaser wrote: Spoke to our insurance agent today about putting the gpz on our contents,he said we go can't go $10700 the best we can offer is $5000 ive been reading some of the feedback

That's not too good at all goldchaser, replacement cost would be $10.7k - if it gets lost/stolen and you have to claim, maybe you can refuse to take the cash and tell them to go buy you a replacement, even secondhand. I had my 45 insured for $4500 with my contents insurance and that's all they'd put on it, but then I suppose that's all it's really worth, maybe a tad more, so for $500 more I could swap from the 45 and get a GPZ? Hmmm not too sure, tempting but I think I might stay with the 45 for the moment....only kidding

goldchaser wrote: Spoke to our insurance agent today about putting the gpz on our contents,he said we go can't go $10700 the best we can offer is $5000 ive been reading some of the feedback

Hi GC, mate i think Wombat had some info on that check in the general section, if your insurance agent won't budge move to another that will bud

I have added the pictures to the post now Jase,

cheers dave

Mike54 wrote:G'day Chris,

We are all asking a question, which has still not been answered and that Question is why have all the Testers stopped talking???   And we are not convinced that the members have caused them to Run away and Hide.          I believe there is more to this crap than meets the EYE.   MINELAB WHAT IS GOING ON HERE???????.  We need Answers NOW!!!!

Regards.

Unhappy Customer.  

Mike.  

Hello Mike,

I stopped posting anywhere except my own forum because of people saying testers are just salespeople. If I visit 20 different forums saying good things about the GPZ I can see how people would consider that to be hyping the detector or promoting it somehow. The thing is I really don't care what people think about the GPZ 7000 or if they get one or not. So I just quit. Not sure that is what you want to hear but it is the truth.

http://www.codan.com.au/Portals/0/otherpubs/16%20Feb%202015%20Minelab%20unveils%20GPZ%207000.pdf

http://www.codan.com.au/

http://www.codan.com.au/Portals/0/investorpubs/Press%20Release%20-%20Dubai%20office%20opening.pdf

davsgold wrote:I have added the pictures to the post now Jase,

cheers dave

Thanks heaps Dave. So anyway that's the gold from the 5 there's 2 pics elsewhere on the forum that shows what zed picked up after the 5. Which did surprise me. So in that particular ground yep zed did well.