Opening the Box: The Minelab Pro-Find 35 pinpointer comes in a cardboard box with a bayonet holster to hang it on a belt, a battery and an A3 sheet of instructions. The operating instructions consist of a picture identifying the parts and brief instructions in eight languages.
The first thing that I noticed was that the battery supplied with the probe had no sell by date. Shouldn’t be a problem but you never know how long some of these have been knocking around. As I tried to put the holder onto my army webbing belt it became obvious that the 2.5 inches long loop on the back wasn’t going to fit a 3 inch wide army belt. The probe sat too high in the Garrett pro holder that was already on my belt and ended being relegated to my finds pouch.
In Use: Once in the field (literally) it felt chunky but seemed well enough built. This chunkiness may be a problem if you have small hands though. The on/off switch was difficult enough to locate with any certainty without looking or fumbling around as it is nearly opposite the same sized speaker recess and was virtually impossible with thick gloves on. The disadvantage of all this fumbling around is that dirt gets pushed into the speaker hole.
The ability to pinpoint targets in air is about the same as other pinpointers, approximately 3 inches on a gold ring on maximum sensitivity . The sensitivity is altered through a +/- toggle switch which moves up and down through five settings and the bleep changes when you reach maximum or minimum. The probe remembers the sensitivity level being used when you turned off and restarts at that level. Pressing the toggle switch while the machine is turned off doesn’t affect this setting. Several times I had nothing down the hole until I upped the sensitivity, which gave me a very useful indication of both direction and distance. Later I discovered that it will pick up my kitchen oven at nearly 18 inches, a feat that some detectors might struggle with.
The vibration is more of a very gentle buzz. An unexpected feature was that the probe often sounds off immediately and keeps bleeping when laid on its side. This isn’t mentioned in the instructions although it is supposed to bleep after five minutes if it is left switched on without being used (after 3 minutes on mine though). The bleeping stopped when the probe was held upright. Unlike my other probe it didn’t interfere at all with my CTX although it will pick it up from a foot or so away, same goes for my spade and finds pouch (presumably only when full though). I mainly bought my new Minelab Pro-Find 35 pinpointer because of its ability to discriminate between ferrous and nonferrous signals. I haven’t used this feature enough yet to decide how reliable it is but it does seem to work, although you need to get your ears tuned in to the exact sounds that you are supposed to listen for. Once you have switched to the discriminate or all metal mode it stays there until you change it, even when you turn the probe on and off.
The LED light, which also flashes to warn of a low battery, may not be as powerful as on some probes but it seems adequate to me.
Conclusion: On balance I am pleased with my new Minelab probe. It does its job well and as I have only used it once for real some of my reservations about it will probably be resolved as I get more familiar with it. There is probably an explanation about why it sometimes sounds off when laid flat and the discrimination should be especially useful. My only serious gripe at the moment is about the belt loop. The instructions could have been a bit more comprehensive but no doubt we will overcome the omissions through a mixture of experimentation and discussions on forums like this. Hope that this has helped. Fred
