You will find that the Infinium LS can be hard to operate. But it actually depends on the level you want to reach. If you turn it on, straight out of the box, you will find metal in most areas. The reason it has so many other knobs and dials (along with Fisher's Impulse) is for areas and metals that are semi-uncommon. Each beach is different, due to different makeups of runoffs, what kind of sand is there, how much metal is in the sand, and how much metal is in the area around the sand. Also, things like power lines (to include trains) and even vehicle traffic can affect your detector and make you think you found something, when you did not. It's places like these that I ALWAYS carry my manual with me. I use these settings so infrequently that I forget the exact things I need to do to "tune" the detector into what I want to find, and exclude the other external forces. Hopefully, this post finds you happy with your purchase of whichever model you went with. If not, don't exclude the Infinium because of what I said. Used properly, it will pick up things that you would not be able to with any other kind of detector. It is well worth the time spent to go over and over the manual, and actually spend the time getting to know your detector.
Also, the kind of coil to get is again dependant on what you want. Large coils search deeper and (obviously) greater areas at one time. This translates into picking up many more objects. Small coils, on the other hand, are much more exact on where the object actually is in the ground. This is "pinpointing" the object. This eventually translates into a faster dig, which means more objects.
Also, I caution you on buying a detector in general. Every mound of dirt, grass, body of water, wooded area, open plain will have you aching to get out there. =) Your wife will leave you because you spend too much time under water looking for treasure (if she hasn't already). =) Your neighbors will hate you for accidentally digging up the collar on the dog they buried 3 years ago (my bad). SO BEWARE!!! =)
Hope this helps and wasn't longer than it was usefull.
Good hunting.
