does idealscope REALLY work on all shapes?

[windowshopper]

Or like the megascope thinggy--is it really most applicable to rounds? Just curious..........

 

[strmrdr]

yes it works on all diamonds and some non-diamonds but the trick is to be able to interpret those results.
There aren't charts for a lot of the shapes.
But by looking at a lot of images you can get a picture of what to expect them to look like.

 

[windowshopper]

does this have to jump corners tho-------------like megascope?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

The scope does not need to jump corners - but you need to understand that you will never get a result like you do with a round.
You start looking for balanced and well spread out leakage that adds to contrast - and avoid leakage near the stone edges because that makes the stone look small. etc etc

 

[windowshopper]

garry-what do you look for in terms of a really good result? --Does anyone have a picture of a an idealscope of an emerald cut stone that is what a great stone would look like?

 

[oldminer]

I think you need to realize that the Ideal-Scope gives your mind an easy way to capture what is happening with light and the diamond. Fancy shapes tend to have less light return than rounds although there are exceptionally cut fancy shapes and poorly cut rounds which disprove this broad generalization. I don''t think I have ever seen an emerald cut that was a brilliant, flashy stone in any way close to the performance of a round and therefore would predict that an Ideal-Scope image of a super emerald cut would be rather unimpressive if compared to an Ideally cut round diamond. If one had a poor emerald cut as a comparision tool, the better emerald cut would show a better I-S image and we could tell this with or without the Ideal-Scope, but for lay people, the I-S highlights the light performance and simply makes it easier to communicate what is going on in a stone.

Comparing actual fancy cut diamonds side by side works much better than looking only at one stone with an Ideal-Scope. The I-S might be helpful to you, but it might not be as useful as simply looking with your eyes and comparing stones under the same controlled lighting.

I think we could make a case for using an Ideal-Scope with any shape diamond, but it sure gives your brain a good idea of what is going on with round diamonds and a lot less information when it comes to fancy shapes unless you are comparing stones all in the same place sequentially.

 

[windowshopper]

Dave
Thanks -its academic for me now as I have purchased an EC that I did not bother to even pursue and idealscope on.........quite honestlly I''d seen several in my search and none meant a thing to me. I went o Harry WInston and Graff and Tiffany and mostly saw stones that were clean and shining under the lights but on the hand seemed rather flat tome...................... I remain so baffled still by the multitude of variabilities that can still conspire to make for a beautiful stone or not so beautiful

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

That''s what the ideal-scope does WS - it removes variables and reduces the lighting environment to a very simple one that shows just light returned, lighted areas that would be blackened or darkened by your head and leakage. then you learn why the diamond looks the way it does.