Low HCA Scores and "shallow shallow" ideals

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

does it have good contrats Derek?

Loooks pretty good to me - and has the spread of a 1.5ct

 

[derekinla]

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On 1/26/2004 6:43:15 PM Cut Nut wrote:

does it have good contrats Derek?

Loooks pretty good to me - and has the spread of a 1.5ct

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In my amateur opinion the contrast is phenomenal. Great fire in a variety of lighting conditions - especially diffuse lighting conditions.

 

[caratgirl]

So, does this mean that a low HCA score like .3 - .5 does NOT mean low contrast in those stones? Or is this not clear in all cases? I know that some posters (can't remember who or what posts) have suggested that those stones may not be such a good choice due to low contrast. If that is not true (which seems likely in this case), than that would be good to know, so that others are not discouraged from such stones in the future. Comments, anyone?

 

[Mara]

CaratGirl I don't think it's that cut and dry. Just like some people prefer fancies over rounds, some people may prefer lower HCA scores vs higher. Garry even notes this on the HCA itself...that preference may be for a score of 1.5 vs .5.




Brian at WhiteFlash and also at least one other (thinking maybe OldMiner?) have noted that they feel that lower HCA scores tend to point at lower contrast in a stone. Brian himself told me during a conversation that he personally prefers diamonds with excellent #'s that score at HCA 1.0. Seemed to me like a happy medium in terms of 0-2 being the excellent range.




But quite obviously Derek is happy with his .3 scoring stone. And it looks quite lovely in the pictures. So to each their own I suppose...everyone is going to have a different opinion. I don't tend to think that 0.3 HCA would be a score I would dissuade people from JUST based on that, but I think it would be fair to mention to them that the stone could possibly suffer from lessened contrast. Would I jump to buy a stone with a 0.3 HCA if I had another opp for one that was more like 0.9HCA? If they both had tip-top #'s, I'd probably be more prone to the middle-road one of 0.9 which doesn't have a potential low-contrast cloud hanging over it's head. But then again, that is like splitting hairs...and both stones will probably be beautiful to the naked eye regardless.