1. A method of performing an X-ray diffraction analysis of a sample comprising: a) locating the sample in a goniometer, the location of the sample representing an origin of a three-dimensional coordinate system having mutually perpendicular X L , Y L and Z L axes; b) illuminating the sample with an X-ray beam directed along the X L -axis such that diffracted X-rays are emitted from the sample along a range of diffraction angles; c) detecting diffracted X-rays with a two-dimensional X-ray detector having a minimum distance D from a center of the sample along a radial direction in the X L -Y L plane that is substantially perpendicular to a surface of the detector, the detector surface being substantially planar and comprising an array of detector pixels located in a two-dimensional pixel array space; d) projecting the two-dimensional pixel array space along said range of diffraction angles onto a cylinder having a radius relative to the Z L axis of length equal to said distance D to form a projected pixel array space; e) determining a virtual cylindrical detection surface on said cylinder, said detection surface having an array of virtual pixels; f) determining a spatial overlap between pixels of the projected pixel array space and the virtual pixels of the virtual detection surface, and reapportioning X-ray intensities attributable to each pixel of the detector based on said spatial overlap such that the reapportioned pixel intensities represent those which would have been detected by a cylindrical detector having a detection surface at said virtual cylindrical detection surface; g) moving the detector in a circular path around the sample while maintaining said minimum distance D and repeating steps (c) through (f) at a plurality of radial directions in the X L -Y L plane until a final radial position of the detector is reached; and h) combining the reapportioned pixel intensities collected at each radial position relative to diffraction angle.