The Nitecore CineWind CW30 is an NP

Aug 31, 2023 by John Aldred Add Comment

Fans are surprisingly common on shoots. They’re often used to help provide a little lift and life in things like hair and clothing. They provide a look that’s a little more natural than just obeying the laws of gravity in the studio.

They’re often quite big and AC powered. The new CineWind CW30 (buy here) from Nitecore, though, is a small and portable option. And you probably already own the batteries to power it.

The Nitecore CineWind CW30 provides winds of up to a fairly impressive 28.6mph or so. It does this using a pair of Sony NP-F style batteries and a 42W 7,200RPM fan. It features a control knob with 10 different output strength settings, letting you dial it in to give you the look you want.

It’s very compact, at only 19cm tall, 10.5cm wide and 12.6cm deep (not including the batteries) and lightweight at 700g (again, not including batteries). Its cheese plate style top surface also allows you to screw in a handle for easy carrying on-set.

The Nitecore CineWind CW30 fan features detachable fan covers. These allow you to easily get to the fan blades in order to keep them clean. I expect most of us won’t have to clean this often as just turning them on usually takes care of a lot of dust, but they’ll still pick up some dirt over time. When you do need to clean them, it’s designed to be a breeze (pun maybe intended).

But the CineWind CW30 doesn’t compromise on safety. The device will not turn on if the covers aren’t installed into the unit. So, there’s no chance of fingers being caught by naked fast-spinning fan blades.

The CineWind CW30 utilises Sony NP-F style batteries. Almost all of us have a little stack of these somewhere and it accepts all sizes from the slim NP-F550 up to the fat NP-F970. It does require both batteries to be installed. It won’t run with just one. So, if you were thinking “hot swappable” for continuous running, think again.

On a pair of fully charged NP-F 970 batteries, you’ll get around three and a half hours of runtime at full power. At a power level of 1, it’ll run continuously on a pair of NP-F970s for 138 hours – this is a little under 6 days.

Buttons and a set of LEDs let you quickly see the charge of the battery on either side at will.

Overall, it looks like a decent fan. 28.6mph obviously isn’t hurricane levels of wind but it’s going to be plenty for a lot of shooting circumstances where you just need to create a breeze or want somebody’s hair or dress blowing in the wind.

The Nitecore CineWind CW30 is available to buy now for $129.99 and has already begun shipping.

Filed Under: Gear Tagged With: Gear Announcement, Nitecore, Nitecore CineWind CW30