IS pro vs handheld ASET on mounted diamonds

[strmrdr]

Let me start out by saying I love them both and am glad I have them both.
I recommend either or better yet both of them to anyone.

That said on to the good stuff.
I stopped by my favorite resale shop today which can be counted on to have a dozen or more diamonds .20 and up on hand.
Mostly low color low clarity run of the mill goods but once in a while they get some very nice ones in.
It is ran by 2 older Ladies who are really sweet.
The kewl thing is they love to talk so don’t mind if I spend my lunch hour looking at diamonds and talking if it’s slow.
A while back I had taken my IS in to look at diamonds and showed them it and they thought it was neat.
Today I went in with both the IS and the handheld ASET scope.
I found both scopes useful but not having to get backlighting made the ASET the hands down favorite to them and me.
With the IS we were always struggling with the lighting on set stones where with the ASET we simply looked thru the scope and brought the diamond up into position and it was perfect.
Using both scopes on unmounted stones with the ideal-light there is no difference in ease of use.
We tried the tweezers holding the ring up on the ideal-light and it helped with some settings and on others it didn’t but again the ASET was easier to use.

For buying lose stones I rate the IS as being easier to understand using it as a pass/fail device where if someone wants to put a lot of study time in, the ASET gives more info.

Now as to the quality of the diamonds:
A lot of low clarity I1-I2 goods one or 2 si class diamonds with reasonably good cut.
One shocker, a set of i2 clarity 3/4TW earrings that were likely in the H-J range..
…
…
near perfect ASET images if you ignored the carbon spots. Due to the mounting the IS wasn’t used much but what I could see looked good.
I was shocked in amongst the carbon spots were picture perfect arrows. Kewl.
There were plenty sparky too once you got far enough away you couldn’t see the inclusions.


Do I have a favorite, yes I do, I mostly look at mounted goods when hunting the resale shops and pawnshops so a loupe and an ASET scope would be my picks if limited to 2 tools. But since im not limited I will take the IS ASET loupe and ideal-light with me.
Each on its own has earned a place in my tool kit.
Each is well worth having and has a place in any diamond geeks toolkit.

 

[belle]

that was a nice easy read

thanks for the practical review.

 

[bookworm21]

Yep, thanks Strm. And where can I get a handheld ASET? Thanks in advance.

 

[belle]

garry is selling them now

www.ideal-scope.com

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Good reviiew Storm.
I would add that the ASET is invaluable for fancy shapes. And if you stick a tiny bit of black tape under one hole of the ideal-light you can get a reasonable approximation of no back light - but make sure you dont stop the stone from resting flat.

I use the ideal-scope to screen loose fancy shaped stones - in or out - and then make a final distinction with ASET

I need to write a decent tutorial - any helpful advice like this would be welcome in this thread.
Also at $50 I think the tool is well priced to become a useful additional tool in any pro or advanced diamond lovers kit.

 

[strmrdr]

I agree Garry $50 is great.
I paid twice that and it was worth it.

I think that some actual images of mounted diamonds with it would rock.
They look slightly different than the dark background ones.
If you have any tricks to getting it lined up better to make the red/green center a more reliable indicator on mounted goods that would be kewl.
Without covering the mouth of the scope with plastic wrap that is.
That works but looks too getto.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

A good idea to have a limiter or marking method for the dead center focusing flush with the face of the scope.

But the idea that you can use this to very accurately measure pavilion angle is a little bit of a strech I think Storm. And even if you do - once you have a good image - there is a lot more useful data included in the image that is more relevant - ie the crown and pavilion agle relativity etc

 

[Rhino]

My feelings exactly strm. On mounted goods, even unmounted I really like it. What I find most interesting is corellating the ASET images to how the diamonds actually appear in common viewing environments. Amount of greens, reds, blues etc. On your escapades see if you can find a stone where the pavilion mains are red instead of blue with a slight bit of leakage under the table and no painting/digging. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw (being that I typically don''t have stones like that around). Good write up and the more you look and study, of course the more you learn. That''s nice how those ladies allow you to spend that time with them in their store. We have some folks who come in to look and learn at times and we have a gas showing them different flavors.

Peace,

 

[Rhino]

Question strm: Do you have both IS models? If so, which do you like best?

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 5/12/2006 10:49:22 PM
Author: Rhino
Question strm: Do you have both IS models? If so, which do you like best?

I just have the pro. model.
I think its worth the price charged for it.
If I get some extra money Id like to get the beginner model to compare.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

you dont need to do that Storm.
But if you go to the photography section on the ideal-scope newsletter - you can see photo''s taken on exactly the same settings thru each - it gives you a great comparison