The black or white top has no impact on result. The metal one with glass optics is an expensive loupe and the basic model is all plastic. Both work just fine. As a pro I prefer the weight and feel of the expert model, but the less costly unit works well although it is only a 6x loupe rather than 10x.
I prefer to call the less costly one the "basic" model because you do not have to be a beginner to find the I-S very useful. It has allowed me to observe and report on diamond light performance that I intuitively understood, but could not describe in any elegant way. The I-S is the tool I use to make some very fine distinctions and is is very inexpensive.
If you want to see and compare how diamonds you're considering perform with your own eyes I would highly recommend the purchase. An Idealscope will likely be a very small percentage of the final cost of any diamond you buy, especially one which is well-cut.
Its not only consumers that use the Ideal Scope,
We search through literally thousands of uncertified diamonds when buying stock. The Ideal scope has reduced selection time by up to 70%.
It’s a simple process. Everything that passes the Idealscope is Sarin tested then subjected to closer inspection.
The IdealScope measures light leakage -it is useful to determine how good the light return is on any diamond of any cut. Even cubic zirconia for that matter!
It has some similarities to the "fantasy scopes" used to view hearts and arrows patterns, but that is not actually what it is designed to do. You can use it to see arrows pretty well, but getting the hearts is a bit more challenging.
I ordered the Ideal Scope.
I ordered the light tray for consistent lighting and it has two indents for comparing two stones instead of holding a stone with a tweezer
I got the H & A viewer, because it was only $12.
AGA also included a laminated chart showing good, medium, and poor cuts as well as a perfectly cut CZ stone.
I recently purchased an ideal scope from Dave Atlas. Prior to that I purchased four loose diamonds relying on the idealscope images from vendors. The last stone I bought did not come with ideal scope images, but had ideal numbers. When I got it, it just wasn't right. I kept telling myself the numbers were perfect and it was in my head, but the idealscope confirmed what my eyes were telling me. Garry helped me with the specs and at the end of the day I suspect the sarin was off and it showed charatcteristics of a cheated girdle.
I won't buy another diamond without it. It also let me confirm that the four loose stones had excellent IS images and let me see the flaws in the old stones I purchased years ago.
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