The CineStill CS-Lite is a Compact and Bright Light for Film Scanning
The CineStill CS-Lite is designed to provide film photographers with higher-quality light output and improved color management for scanning 35mm and medium format film with a digital camera.
CineStill’s Steve Carter says that the process of scanning film negatives with a digital camera has been a rapidly evolving space over the last few years but there still was not a light source option that combined all three of these factors: affordable, bright, and easy to use. That’s where the CS-Lite comes in.
The company says that it is feature rich and designed to slot easily into a current camera scanning workflow. The light itself features a CRI of 95+ for what CineStill characterizes as high color accuracy. It also has a brightness of EV 15+ to provide a sufficient amount of illumination for even the densest of negatives.
“What sets the CS-LITE apart from other light sources on the market is its ability to adjust color temperatures to properly suit different types of film, such as Color Negative, Color Positive, and Black-and-White,” the company says.
Color temperature is controlled by the three different color modes that are calibrated into the CS-Lite: Cool Light mode, White Light mode, and Warm Light mode.
CineStill says the Cool Light mode is intended for scanning color negative film such as CineStill 800T, 400D, and 50D. It is designed to reduce the orange mask that is present in color negative film to provide photographers with more neutral scans. The company says that color-balanced scans can result in better color separation with less noise.
The White Light mode is positioned as ideal for scanning black-and-white film as well as slide film that has been processed with the CineStill Cs6 DynamicChrome warm-tone developer.
Lastly, CineStill says the Warm Light mode is perfect for scanning slide film, as the tungsten-balanced light can produce richer tones and enhanced color separation, especially within the red channel.
The company is also providing two additional optional accessories designed for th CS-Lite: the CS-LiteMask and CS-LiteBrite.
The CS-LiteMask is a universal carrier mask that CineStill says photographers can pair with pre-existing film carriers, like those made by Negative Supply, VALOI, or Lomography.
“Masking around the edges of the carrier helps to eliminate spill light, reducing unwanted reflections and maintaining uniformity across the entirety of your scans. This versatile solution is especially useful when paired with the VALOI 360 carriers, which fit perfectly into the mask for a compact stabilized solution for holding your film in place when digitizing,” the company explains.
The CS-LiteBrite is a light collimating sheet that increases the directional light output, further reduces the spill light, and which CineStill says enhances diffusion uniformity.
“A single CS-LiteBrite sheet placed directly on the light source increases brightness of the CS-LITE by 60%, resulting in sharper and higher quality scans,” CineStill claims.
At launch and through the holiday season, these both come included with the CS-LITE which is available for $30 from both CineStill’s website and through Valoi.
