When I had my first F5......I was going to make a new housing for the F5 and work on a better balanced outfit. There is a lot of empty space in the F5 control box , was going to build a smaller housing and move the battery under the armcuff. At the time I did not have a T2 , didn't even think to use the T2 handle and shaft set-up. Think now that would have been ideal.
Ended up selling the F5 and getting the Omega, because it was similar and lighter in weight. I actually didn't like it at all here in Canada. The Delta I bought my wife was much nicer to use.
Years later bought another F5, dirt cheap. Soon after I sold it, too much masking and it still didn't like Canadian coins that much. There were many better machines that worked great with our coins. Next I tried the T2 with the Nel Sharpshooter coil, that was much better than the F5, Omega in our area. Found two gold rings in 2 days with T2 and lots of coins. Eventually, got hooked up with a Nokta Impact, best detector I have owned for Canada, then got a Multi-Kruzer, Anfibio Multi and continued to stay with the Nokta/Makro products for everyday use. They just needed to work on balance and weight---a bit of coil heavy. For balance and weight I really enjoy the White's IDX with the 600 coil. Fast set-up and loves Canadian clad as well as gold.
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I dig it with a Nokta/Makro product-Legend,
DeepTech Vista X and Blisstool V5 The Beast