I have had an Illumitran since 2021 for digitising colour and b/w negatives, and transparencies, of 35mm to 5x4 format (having first used an Illumitran at work in the 1980s). The unit I bought is in excellent condition but needed a bit of a lubrication to the rails that the flash tube/viewing light move on; and also the bellows unit was very stiff, as the mechanism needed an overhaul. The flash sync voltage was 155v, but I built a voltage-reduction unit to incorporate inside the Illumitran unit to be on the safe side. An alternative can be using the Open Flash button and using the Illumitran in a dark room.
Light output is high, and several layers of Perspex opal diffuser were needed to cut the output down so that f/9.5, the ideal aperture for the FF digital copy camera (any smaller such as f/11 of f/16 saw diffraction softness set in). Illumination is fine when copying 35mm, but 120 or 5x4 copies can be a bit uneven but can be corrected in post-processing. It is important to use opal diffuser that is diffuse right through, rather than diffuser that is diffuse on the surfaces and clear in the middle.
I have used El Nikkor and Componon enlarging lens for copying 35mm and 120 roll film images, focusing manually on the camera’s articulating Live View screen. An 80mm El Nikkor has given sharper corners on the copy than the 50mm El Nikkor or Componon, although the vertical rail of the Illumitran needs extending for the 80mm lens. I have also used a 100mm Macro instead of an enlarging lens, and attached the camera direct to the Illumitran’s vertical rail.
I have also used the Illumitran base (no bellows, etc) together with the camera attached to a copy stand when copying 5x4 format, with a 50mm macro lens fitted to the copy camera. When using the copy stand, putting on a 100mm macro lens on the camera has enabled me to copy 35mm and 120 originals, too.
The Illumitran I bought had a contrast-reduction unit with it, but I have never needed it, as post-processing in Lightroom has brought out full shadow and highlight detail from the digital raw file.
Before I bought the Illumitran, I used a copy stand and LED light box. Whilst copies of black and white negs were good, the colour of the transparencies was difficult to impossible to replicate in the digital copy (LED spectrum output?) Accurate colour rendering has been much easier to achieve with the Illumitran.
Another advantage of the Illumitran has been the high sync speed due to the flash light source compared to much slower speeds I had to use when copying with a LED light box. (I also use the DSLR electronic shutter and a remote release to lower the possibility of camera shake)
