There's simply no way to duplicate an evenly lit field of strobe light and having the option of using polarizers. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Cruse, I'm just saying as a professional that earns a large percentage of income from fine art repro, I believe a well outfitted repro studio with a multi-shot cam, digital large format lenses, and an excellent array of strobes and modifiers is pretty tough to beat.
Uh, I beg to differ. Having cut my teeth running a big process camera, oh, what, 30 years or more ago when prepress was film,
and shot commercial art repro for a few decades, I'd say quite the opposite. The Cruse uses long strip lights, configured to run within 6" of the sample area, at three preset distances- standard left/right, left (or right) only, left (or right) 5cm and left (or right) 10cm off-axis. You can see what I mean in the second video.
There's no way any light source, polarized or otherwise, can do what this can... Whatever you use or shoot with, you're stuck with a relatively small diameter light source a distance away from the work. You can't fight the inverse square law- the bigger the piece, the more difference you're going to get from one light, from one side (closer to the light) to the other (further from the light). Polarized light is completely unnecessary- you can dial in (or out) the amount of specular highlight or shadow by centimeters.
Plus, the strip lights are within hundredths of a stop from one end to the other.
Due respect- but there's just no comparison. Of course, if you have to bring the camera to the work, it's a different story- for that we do use the Betterlight or the multishot Hassey.