diy ideal scope

[sharptooth]

Does anyone know if you can use a hearts and arrows viewer like this https://www.pricescope.com/community/attachments/hearts-and-arrows-viewer-jpg.623828/ and replace the bottom with a diy ideal light, will it work the same as an ideal scope? I want to buy an ideal scope or aset but it would be nice to save some money since I already have a this H&A viewer.

 

[oldminer]

The H&A viewer does provide some symmetry data to view, but does not have the angles of reflection correct for Ideal-Scope image production. You won't see how light is returned or leaked with the way it is configured. A H&A tool, and H&A in general, is sort of a sales tool and a neat visual, but not diagnostic of light return in the same structured way that Ideal-Scope easily demonstrates. Considering what folks spend on engagement rings and major diamonds, such a tool is really minor and eliminates the mystery in selecting best cut diamonds from those grading well, but not really performing quite as well.

 

[flyingpig]

You could. But you will now have white representing both leakage and contrast. You will have this mess.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/help-interpreting-an-ideal-scope.199931/
It is not useless. But it is really hard to interpret unless you know what you are looking for.
Also, the photo shows the issue with the angles of reflection that oldminer mentioned.

 

[oldminer]

Using a non-standard setup will have different angles of incidence of the three colored zones at the diamond's crown. Without having any reliable reference built up from computer modeling or previous known cut quality diamonds, the resultant images would be just a waste of time, beyond the doing it for fun effect.