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Diamond Shopping on the Internet: Does Your Diamond Sparkle and Light Up?
A major question being asked by consumers shopping for diamonds on the Internet is how can I tell if the diamond I'm interested in sparkles and is brilliant? Most diamond websites show only the data from the Lab report, others only sample or generic images and the few sites that do display actual photo's are of undefined lighting conditions and of poor resolution.
Gemex Systems of Mequon, Wisconsin (www.gemex.com) has developed a spectrophotometer called the Brilliancescope that measures a diamond's light performance.
Above: Brilliancescope by Gemex Systems.
A diamond is scanned in the Brilliancescope by having a light reflected back through the diamond's crown at six different angles from the light source. Light performance is measured and compared against a database of thousands of diamonds and categorized as White Light (Brilliance), Colored Light, (Dispersion), and Scintillation (Sparklies). The results are presented in two ways: As a linear graph that shows how a diamond performs against the entire database and as six digital photographs; 5 reflective and 1 diffuse which depicts the Cut Symmetry of the diamond. The photographs display amount of light intensity, location and distribution of light, and extent of interaction between the light components being measured by the machine.
Above: Brilliancescope Light Analyses Report. Note the light intensity, location and distribution of reflected light as depicted in the 5 Light Views and the symmetry in View 6.
Compare to the Brilliancescope above. Note the significant differences in light intensity, distribution, and interactions.
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