So welcome to The Geek Boat, my friend. You're in good company, so grab an oar and start rowing. Your first order of business is to find the detector that's going to be right for you. White, Garrett, Fisher, Tesoro and Minelab. Stick with these five brand names and you'll own a machine that will probably outlive you.
Some brands are more sophisticated and have a higher learning curve.
Others are the portrait of simplicity and are ready to go right out of the box. Either way, they're all quality machines. For the most part, TH'ers are fiercely brand loyal, so asking which brand is better than another isn't the most objective question you could ask. If Fisher stuck a wad of chewing gum on the end of a tree branch and called it a metal detector, you can bet there are Fisher devotees who'll swear they used it to find a tooth filling at 40 fathoms. At any rate, avoid buying a detector from a company not specifically in the business of selling metal detectors.