An enlarger is a simple machine. A lamp shines through a negative, a lens throws the image down onto paper, and a timer switches it off. What makes a used one good or useless is rarely the column you see in the first photo. It's the small parts that belong to it, like the carrier that holds your size of negative, the condensers or mixing box above it, the lens board, the lamp and, on color heads, the power supply. This is the order we'd go through a listing in. Each model page in the catalog adds the checks for that machine.
Start with the negative you print
Every enlarger tops out at one negative size, and it needs the maker's own carrier for each size up to that. Carriers aren't universal, even inside one brand. KHB Photografix, a Canadian shop that services and stocks parts for LPL, Omega, Beseler and De Vere enlargers, sells Beseler carriers in separate ranges. One range fits every Beseler 23C, another fits all the Beseler 4x5 machines, and a third fits the Printmaker and 67-series. Omega's carriers split the same way, with different ones for the B-series, the C700 and B22 family, the C760 and the D-series.
So look for the carrier in the photos and read its size. A 23C sold with only a 35mm carrier prints 35mm today, and you'll be hunting a 6x6 carrier on its own later. If the listing just says carriers are included, ask which sizes.
Condensers or mixing box for that size
Above the carrier sits whatever spreads the light. On a condenser enlarger that's a set of glass lenses, and on many models they change with the format or the lens. Omega's manual for the D2 describes two fixed 6-inch condensers plus a variable condenser that you slide to a position marked for your lens's focal length. Omega's C-67 takes a separate 35mm condenser lens in place of its upper condenser for small negatives, and Beseler sold a condenser position scale kit for its 4x5 enlargers.
Color and diffusion heads use a mixing box instead, and those come in sizes too. Beseler shipped its Dichro 45S head with a 4x5 chamber and sold 6x7 and 35mm chambers as extras, to "optimally illuminate the selected format", in the manual's words. Omega's C760 head came with two, one for 35mm and one for 6x4.5 to 6x7. Ask for a photo of the condensers out of the head, or of the head open with the mixing box in place.
The light and its lamp
Older condenser heads use a frosted opal bulb, and those are easy. KHB still lists the PH211 at 75 watts and the PH212 at 150 watts, plus the teardrop PH140 and the bayonet-base PH111A. Color heads use low-voltage halogen lamps made for that head. Beseler's Dichro 45S takes an 82-volt, 250-watt lamp, and Omega's C760 takes an 85-watt, 82-volt one. When we checked KHB's lamp list in October 2026, both of those, and several other Beseler, LPL and Omega halogen lamps, were listed out of stock. So a color head should come with a working lamp in it. Ask for a photo of the head switched on with light on the baseboard.
Bellows, column and focus
The bellows are the flexible, light-tight sleeve between the negative and the lens, and they wear. Parts sellers list replacement bellows for the 23C, for the 45M and 45MX, for the Omega D5 and D6, and for LPL's 6700, 7700 and 4x5 machines. Look at the extended bellows in the photos for tears, frayed corners and tape. Light leaks fog paper. One large-format printer writing on largeformatphotography.info traced dull highlights to a leak around the carrier of his used enlarger, and cured it with a rubber gasket.
The head should move up the column smoothly and lock where you leave it, and the focus should run its full travel. Omega's D2 manual asks owners to rub a little Vaseline on the counterbalance springs and focusing rods now and then, and KHB still lists brass focus rods for the B-22, B-66, D-2 and D-5. A short video of the head rising and the focus knob turning answers most of this.
Alignment
An enlarger prints sharp from corner to corner only when the baseboard, the negative and the lens are parallel. Versalab, which makes the PARALLEL laser alignment gauge, puts it exactly that way. The gauge sits on the easel and bounces a laser off a glass reflector held on the lens or laid in the carrier. One printer quoted on Versalab's page found that just tightening the hold-down bolts on his Beseler 45MX pulled the planes out of parallel. Simpler tools work too. Omega sold a 15-inch rod with a spirit level that you zero on the baseboard and then lay on the negative and lens stages, and Beseler made a two-level version with a lens board adapter.
You can't see alignment in photos, and most machines can be adjusted. Omega's D2 manual walks through squaring the lamphouse to the film stage, using a carrier as a shim. Ask the seller whether prints came out sharp in all four corners, then check it with a level on arrival.
Lens and lens board
Plenty of used enlargers come without a lens. KHB's listings for new LPL enlargers say lenses and carriers aren't included, and its refurbished Omega and Beseler kits vary, some with a 50mm lens and 35mm carrier and some with neither. What matters most is the board. Beseler's 4x4-inch boards fit both the 23C and the 4x5 models and come drilled for 25, 32.5, 39 and 42mm threads. LPL ships a reversible 39mm "Leica" thread board as standard. If the board in the photos doesn't match your lens, you'll need another one. Our guide to carriers, condensers and lenses covers which focal length goes with which negative.
Timer and power supply
A condenser enlarger with an opal bulb plugs straight into a timer. A color head usually needs its own box. Omega's D2 dichroic power supply feeds low voltage to the halogen lamp, LPL's 4x5 machines come with a stabilized power supply, and Omega recommended its separate voltage stabilizer for 110-volt C760 heads because swings in line voltage shift both exposure and color. Beseler's Dichro 45S is the exception. It's stabilized inside, and its manual says not to add an external stabilizer. If the head needs a supply, make sure it's in the photos, because the replacements KHB lists are model-specific. For the timer, even a basic GraLab 300 has an enlarger outlet, a focus switch and a safelight outlet that switches off while the enlarger is on.
Weight and getting it home
The big ones are heavy. KHB gives about 31 kg for LPL's 7452L 4x5 enlarger and about 16 kg for the LPL 7700, and new LPL 4x5 machines shipped in three cartons. If the seller offers shipping, ask how they'll pack it. Our guide to moving a big enlarger shows how the makers packed them.
The short version
- A carrier for each negative size you shoot, made for this model.
- The condensers or mixing box for those sizes.
- A lamp that lights and, for color heads, the power supply.
- Bellows without tears or tape, a head that locks and focus that runs.
- A lens board for your lens thread, and a lens if the listing says so.
- A plan for the weight before you commit.
