First impressions of the new Minelab SDC 2300

I have just returned home from spending two days at the Minelab SDC 2300 pre launch party at Kellyco metal detectors in Winter Park central Florida. 
It was a good opportunity to handle and test the new Minelab metal detector on a variety of small gold jewelry targets in the sandy test bed at Kellyco. 
My first impressions of the SDC 2300 are how compact the metal detector is and how sensitive it is to small gold targets. 
For someone like me who travels with a metal detector on vacation, the waterproof SDC 2300 is going to be easy to put in my carry on luggage or back pack, we sometimes spend our family vacations on Caribbean cruises and I beach and water hunt in different ports of call.
I was helping at the SDC 2300 launch party with the competition hunts, I figured I needed at least a day before hand to get to grips with the new metal detector.
I figured wrong!  it took me 10 minutes to become comfortable with the SDC 2300, the new pulse induction metal detector is so simple to operate, a real turn on and go gold machine.  
There is nothing complicated about the SDC 2300, unfold it, turn it on, set the sensitivity control to a preset level, noise cancel, set the threshold, ground balance and away you go.
My fellow training partner Alan the president of the local metal detecting club and I, conducted several simple tests to see if the SDC 2300 was going to be a good choice for gold jewelry hunting on the beach. 
Alan placed a thin gold chain ( no pendant) stretched out in a straight line on the sand, the SDC 2300 rang out loud and clear on the gold chain, good sign number one!! 
I placed a tiny gold ear ring back and gold post ear ring on the sand, again the SDC 2300 easily detected the small pieces of gold jewelry. 
We also detected a quarter coin on top of the sand with the eight inch mono coil 18 inches above the quarter, a very impressive air test. 
After an hour spent folding, unfolding and using the new metal detector we both had enough training on the SDC 2300 to confidently assist people testing and taking part in the competition hunts the following day. 
During one of the competition hunts yesterday, a guy approached us with some tiny gold flakes in a small glass bottle. 
The test was to see if the SDC 2300 could detect the tiny gold flakes in the bottle, in front of several witness's the SDC 2300 detected the very small gold flakes. 
From my limited time using the new SDC 2300, I can see this waterproof metal detector being an asset to gold jewelry hunters on the beach. 
I ordered an SDC 2300 and look forward to having another treasure hunting tool to help me recover those difficult targets to detect on the beach, diamond stud ear rings and gold chains.