The IWA, which stands for Internationale Waffen Ausstellung, is a trade fair held in Germany for outdoor activities, hunting, shooting sports and security equipment industries. The event takes place annually, and this year it was held in March.
It is quite exciting to see the big name metal detector manufacturers hosting stalls at these events to showcase their latest products and even to announce new products, and this year was no exception.
Quest Metal Detectors
Quest was showcasing their all new HyperQ simultaneous multi frequency metal detectors. These are the V60 and V80 detectors.
These new detectors really do have all the features that you would expect from a mid range detector, including being able to manually select from a frequency range of 5 kHz to 80 kHz or to use the HyperQ frequency which is when more than one frequency is being used simultaneously while detecting.
They have a flat foldable telescopic shaft system which makes these detectors really small and easy to transport when not in use.
Both are 5m waterproof and have an embodied gyro system, so when enabled, and you pump the coil for example, the gyro senses the pumping action and knows that the user is trying to ground balance, so automatically initiates the ground balance procedure while pumping (the user does not need to press any ground balance button while doing this).
The new screens look the best I have seen so far on a detector in terms of readability in bright sunlight. They claim the brighter the sunlight, the easier it is to read the screen. The screen looks like it will be very easy to see in all types of weather conditions, day or night.
All in all, these look like great detectors that should work nicely on the salt water beaches, parks, fields and even the goldfields.
MINELAB
Minelab showcased their all new Manticore detector as well as the Equinox 700 / 900 range.
The Manticore has already been released and is now available, is built on the original Multi-IQ technology and is called Multi-IQ+ which transmits more power, operates at a wider range and unearths more targets. It features a three piece, collapsible carbon fiber shaft system as well as a large colour screen that delivers the most intuitive user experience.
The new generation Equinox 700 and 900 models boasts improved target separation and high resolution target IDs to help detectorists distinguish between trash and treasure like never before. These have improved waterproof capabilities, now capable of being submersed down to around 5 metres, is 5% lighter than its predecessors and with its new and improved shaft and arm rest, should feel more solid in build quality.
It also seems that there was some sort of announcement of a new X-Terra model called the X-Terra Pro. This machine will have selectable frequencies but only capable of running on one frequency at a time, being either 5, 8, 10 or 15 kHz. It looks like it is in a similar housing to that of the Equinox series and is fully waterproof down to 5m.
NOKTA
Nokta announced an upgrade to the Simplex range of detectors. There will be 3 new models namely the Lite, BT and ULTRA. The frequency that these machine run on has changed from 12 kHz on the original Simplex+ to 15 kHz on these newer models.
The Lite will be the lowest of the three in terms of cost. The specs are yet to be seen but we are told that the main difference is that it will not have any wireless headphone capabilities.
The BT Version should be very similar (if not the same) as the Lite version, except this has added bluetooth capabilities and will possibly include a pair of bluetooth headphones in the box.
The Ultra version is a beefed up version of the Simplex with added features that users have been asking for. I am not sure exactly at this stage what those features are, but expect even more settings than before. It will also have a carbon fiber shaft as well as new arm cuff.
They have not announced pricing or launch date, but said that we can expect these “soon”.