What is Camera Scanning and Why?

Camera scanning is the process of digitizing your negatives using a stabilized camera with a macro lens, a film holder, and a light source. This simple setup allows you to create a digital RAW file from your film, which can then be converted into a usable digital image using specialty film conversion software.

Why scan? Because we live in a post-digital age where sharing and backing up your work is essential — and as film shooters, we already have the best archival storage ever made: our negatives.

Without a doubt, printing your own work in the darkroom is the ultimate completion of the analog process — after all, the film we all know and love was commonly referred to as “print film” for many years before scanning technology came onto the scene. But camera scanning isn’t about replacing the darkroom — it’s about enhancing the modern analog photographer’s toolkit. It’s not an “either-or” choice. Rather, another great way to get the most out of your photography.

While dedicated film scanning machines have been around for decades, the workflow has gone relatively unchanged in that time. If anything, using the older hardware has only become more tedious as aging components and long-obsolete software become hurdles that are harder to overcome with each passing year. Scanning film quickly became time consuming, expensive, finicky, and difficult to do right... until now.

The camera scanning workflow has dramatically improved in recent years — becoming faster, simpler, and delivering vastly better quality. No longer do you have to labor behind outdated and deteriorating equipment to scan your images (and believe us, we love a nice Fuji Frontier scan).

As innovation continues, certain standards have emerged to simplify the process even further — from film holders to specialty software dedicated solely to negative conversion.

Enter a new wave of enthusiasts and brands like Negative Supply, VALOI, FilmLab, Filmomat SmartConvert, and Negative Lab Pro, who have helped build out camera scanning as a viable option. But this begs the question: where does CineStill fit into this evolving workflow?

CineStill and the Camera Scanning Workflow

In 2022, CineStill released the CS-LITE, the first affordable light source designed specifically for camera scanning — with the color science of color print film in mind, integrating dedicated settings for color negative, black & white, and color slides. Created to fit into the sweet-spot of performance and price, the CS-LITE gave users a reliable foundation for film conversion, pairing seamlessly with a range of holders and workflows. It’s even been integrated into modular systems like the VALOI 360 System and monolithic systems like the innovative VALOI easy120, helping establish new standards for streamlined scanning and accessible quality.

But our work didn’t stop there.

Even with better sensors and lenses, we noticed lingering shortcomings when capturing negatives digitally — nuances in color rendering that differed from the traditional RA-4 darkroom process. Beyond just brightness and color bias, there were deeper aspects of color science that needed addressing to truly capture film’s full dynamic beauty. The CS-LITE introduced three selectable color modes to help pre-balance certain color biases, giving a better starting point for color correction. But even with that, we’ve just begun to scratch the surface.

What’s Next?

At CineStill, we believe the next innovations will come from leveraging both the technical advancements of digital photography along with true analog color science to enrich and complement the timeless beauty of film. As digital sensors continue to get better, it only allows us to find even more ways to appreciate celluloid.

With new ideas and breakthroughs being unlocked every day, we're more committed than ever to making film simpler, more accessible, and more enduring for generations to come.

We’ve been working behind the scenes over the past 3 years on new technology and tools that will take the film conversion process even further — pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when scanning color negative film.

Stay tuned — we have much more to share very soon.

To be continued…

Viva La Revolution,
CineStill Film