By David C. Rotenberg, Certified Gemologist Appraiser
DID YOU KNOW that your smart phone can make your diamond shopping experience easier?
Now I don’t mean surfing the net, I mean actually looking at and comparing diamonds.
Professional Jewelers like American Gem Society Jewelers have a tool called the ASET (Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool) which will reveal a well cut diamond, or a not so well cut diamond. What you want to see in a diamond with the ASET device are symmetrical patterns with lots of red which shows brilliance, some blue which is contrast and some green which is light being reflected at a different angle. You don’t want to see much white or black which means light is being lost in that area. How well a diamond is cut is what makes it sparkle!
Once you have found a diamond you like with your jeweler you can ask them to verify the cut (or beauty) with the ASET tool.
Now comes the fun. A professional jeweler will have an ASET with a staging device so when you look at the diamond you can not only see the well cut proportions, but using your smart phone you can capture image with a picture.
All you have to do is hold the smart phone over the eyepiece showing the diamond, lower the phone on to the stage, focus, shoot the picture and “voilà” you have a photo of the diamond of your choice.
It’s that simple. If you decide to shop around, when you go to the next jeweler check their diamonds using the same method with the ASET device and compare the images. If you like what you see, you have a second choice, if they don’t have an ASET tool then you should ask yourself how can they tell me how well cut their diamonds are if they can’t show me? You might want to keep shopping.
These photos show various degrees of light performance (beauty) as displayed in the ASET tool.
