Turning The $50 ASET Into The $1200 Version

The Angular Spectrum Evaluation Tool (ASET) from AGS assesses the cut quality of a diamond in much the same way as the Ideal-Scope, using reflection technology.

It is mostly used for fancy cuts (any cut but round brilliant) as it has a three level filter for assessing light be returned at different angles. It comes it in three different versions – the handheld $40 version, the “presentation” $600 version and the desktop version for a whopping $1200. You can buy these versions directly from the AGS Advanced Instruments Division.

However, you can also buy the original handheld version for $50 at ideal-scope.com. However, unlike the Ideal-Scope where you can just remove the magnifying lens, with the ASET, the magnifying lens is built into the casing, thus you can’t take photos. To take photos, you need the $1200 version!

That said, you can still “hack” the ASET so you can not only take static images, but you can also take moving ASET images.

The first thing you’ll need to do is drill a hole through the lens at the top like so:

Note that the lens is thick, so it may take a while. Try not to worry about making the hole perfectly circular, as it just needs to be big enough to get the camera lens through.

The next step is to attach it to a compact camera. We’re using a Canon Powershot A430, which has been superseded by the A450. This camera is probably the cheapest in the Canon range, but it does a superb job for Ideal-Scope and ASET images.

Now all you have to do is take the image. Whether it be with the Ideal Light, or another method. Below are a couple of the results from our setup. Note that the princess was crooked.

Our camera even produces good quality video, allowing us to make “moving ASET” videos. Once again, the quality of YouTube let us down, but this video gives a good idea of what’s possible with a few simple tools.

This entry was written by Nikhil Jogia and was posted on on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Diamonds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.