Are you in the right place?
We’ve noticed that the word “develop” is often used to describe the service of printing and/or scanning negatives, when in the past it meant the chemical process to reveal the images on the film after having been exposed in the camera. Disc film developing is something we do but we also do Disc film scanning and Disc film printing. If your film looks like this…
…then you should be here…
Disc Film Scanning and Printing
If your film looks like this…
…then you’re in the right place but you can also find out more in depth details about our developing service here…
Old Photographic Film Processing
The challenges of processing disc film
Even in the most optimal situation, disc film wasn’t a very high quality format. The negatives are tiny and only intend for very small prints. 3.5 x 4.5 inches was pretty standard in the past for these films. Adding to this, the film hasn’t stood up very well over time undeveloped. This is due to the design of the cassette which is permeable to the elements and has thus oxidized more quickly than other formats. With roll film, the elements are displaced by the fact the film is tightly wound onto a spool and not as good but better than disc film, 35mm film is at least wound loosely on a spool and somewhat protected. Disc film is simply laying flat inside its cassette and well exposed to the elements. We do our best with these but it’s not unusual for the film to be in “poor” to “very poor” condition at this point. The quality is rarely better than “fair”.
See this link to understand our meaning of quality…
Price Policy and Currency
Prices and billing are in US dollars with one exception: Film Rescue Europe orders are billed in Euros**
When applicable, VAT, GST and/or PST will be added to European and Canadian orders.
**Film Rescue Europe orders must be sent to and returned through the Netherlands location.
Base Price – Processing, Digitizing, Photoshopping and Invitation to View and/or Download your Pictures From Your Gallery
Film will be processed in the safest possible manner – B&W negative – to give us the highest chance of salvaging an image. If you’d like your film in color, we can attempt that too but only after first processing safely into B&W. See “Film Acceleration” below for details. The negative is then scanned and manually Photoshopped image by image — an important step that goes a long way to improving faded, long expired film. The images are then uploaded to a private gallery for client viewing.
While you can download these images directly from the gallery to your computer, the free downloads are small and really only intended as preview images to let you know what is on your film. The larger images you see in your gallery are watermarked. Any orders placed in the gallery have the watermark removed. See “Options Once you have your Gallery” for more details.
Remember: we do not charge for processing if a film turns out blank or without recognizable pictures.
Tested safest possible process, digitizing, Photoshopping and upload to preview gallery | 30.00 per film* |
If your film has only 2 to 4 recognizable pictures (to our discretion) | 20.00 |
If your film has only a single recognizable picture or is borderline recognizable (to our discretion) | 15.00 |
If your film is blank | No Charge |
Film Acceleration (making your film color) – optional – add 15.00
Disc film often doesn’t accelerate well into color. Processing into B&W negative will always be the safest bet.
See our FAQ for more information about film acceleration.
Optional Once You Have Your Gallery…
These are your order options in the gallery on a pick and choose basis, per image:
High resolution digital file | 0.99 |
4×4 to 4×6 traditional style print (large border on glossy paper) | 0.99 (volume discounts when multiple copies ordered) |
5×5 to 5×8 traditional style print (large border on glossy paper) | 1.50 (volume discounts when multiple copies ordered) |
High resolution digital file with 4×4 to 4×6 traditional style print (large border on glossy paper) | 1.50 (volume discounts when multiple copies ordered) |
High resolution digital file with 5×5 to 5×8 traditional style print (large border on glossy paper) | 1.99 (volume discounts when multiple copies ordered) |
8×8 to 8×11 print | 5.99 |