Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows scope

[ScottGBP]

I didn't invent this, in fact it's been posted at least once before https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/homemade-hearts-arrows-viewer.177008/ but I just came across it and thought some other newbies like me might like to see it again. I played around this afternoon with my camera, a tube made from a square pink post-it note, and various lighting sources to have some fun viewing hearts and arrows in a loose diamond I just bought.

This is NOT a H&A marketed diamond, but I just wanted to check it out. I thought the pics turned out pretty well and wanted to share. In the previous thread they mentioned they didn't have much luck capturing shots of the arrows but I ended up with a few that seemed to come out pretty well. The big thing I noticed on both the hearts and arrows shots is that the apparent symmetry of the diamond changes a lot depending on how well the camera is positioned (whether the lense is parallel to the table and perfectly centered above it or not). Some shots look pretty symmetrical, while others do not. I'd like to see the results for a perfectly positioned camera. The light source was an LED flashlight aimed near the top of the tube for best results. The room was otherwise fairly dim.

Any way, here are a couple shots I had some fun capturing. Scott

Hearts view:


Arrows view... the holding prong locations and the location of the directional light source seem to maybe cause a couple gaps in 2 of the arrows:

 

[tweeter8177]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Thanks for posting, I hadn't seen this! Too bad I don't have a loose stone, but I will be unsetting a stone soon and will try it!

 

[LoubieLove]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Cool! Thanks for sharing! I have a loose stone and am going to try this. I hope it works for me!

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

tweeter8177 and LoubieLove, I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Good luck getting it to work with your loose diamond LL. Remember, you'll have to play around a bit with the light source and where it hits the side of the tube. Hopefully you get some good views!

I'm expecting an Ideal Scope in the mail in the next day or so and hope to post a pic from that as well.

 

[junebug17]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Wow, very cool pics Scott, nice job - thanks for posting them!

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Wow, very cool pics Scott, nice job - thanks for posting them!

Thanks Junebug, just having as much fun with the loose diamond as I can before it is set!

 

[Cricketcat]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Hi ScottGBP,
Just curious, are you getting the beginner or expert idealscope? I'd like to order one, just not sure which one I should order.

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Hi ScottGBP,
Just curious, are you getting the beginner or expert idealscope? I'd like to order one, just not sure which one I should order.

Hi Cricketcat, I ordered the expert ideal scope largely on the basis of the higher magnification - If memory serves me, the expert is x10 and the beginner is x6. I figured the expert scope might make it easier to capture a photo. Hope this helps, Scott

 

[Cricketcat]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Yes, thanks for the info. I've wanted to get an idealscope. Will look forward to seeing idealscope photos of your diamond.

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Yes, thanks for the info. I've wanted to get an idealscope. Will look forward to seeing idealscope photos of your diamond.

Here are the couple ideal scope pics I promised. Still working out how to get the best images. Posting a couple since they are varying levels of overall darkness, zoom, and focus. I'll prolly post a separate thread on these, but definitely feel free to comment on them if you know how to interpret IS images. Scott

 

[Karl_K]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Good job you did better than some vendors.
Stone is slightly tilted in the first.
Second is overexposed and white balance is off.

A lot of the time you need to increase contrast and sharpening in post processing to bring out the details.
As far as the stone it passes the IS test with flying colors.

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

Good job you did better than some vendors.
Stone is slightly tilted in the first.
Second is overexposed and white balance is off.

A lot of the time you need to increase contrast and sharpening in post processing to bring out the details.
As far as the stone it passes the IS test with flying colors.

Thanks for the feedback and tips Karl!

 

[beaujolais]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

What gets the hearts to show as opposed to the arrows and vice-versa?

Thanks.

 

[ScottGBP]

Re: Sunday afternoon fun with a homemade hearts and arrows s

What gets the hearts to show as opposed to the arrows and vice-versa?

Thanks.

The hearts show (via an appropriate scope or viewer) when looking at the stone upside down, i.e., it is resting on the table and the culet is pointing at you. The arrows show when viewing from the table.