No other format of film is more in need of the best possible quality digitization than the lowly Disc film. We are using a Phase One Cultural Heritage system to scan your disc film. Phase One Cultural Heritage systems are used by top museums around the world and are second to none.
Learn more about Phase One Cultural Heritage
*The input resolution of our disc film scanning exceed 10,000 DPI - More than doubling the top FADGI standard of 4000 DPI for film digitization. (FADGI is the organization that sets targets for cultural heritage digitization for the US Library of Congress)
Your Negatives will be:
- Thoroughly cleaned — We don’t use an infrared dust removal system such as Digital Ice or Image intelligence. Dust removal is done manually to eliminate the artifacting that can be created by IR dust removal when scanning such small images. We do use IR on larger negatives…It just doesn’t work well on tiny negatives.
- Spotted digitally for any remaining dust or scratches. Please note, negatives in very poor condition may still have some damage remaining.
- When necessary we wet mounted the disc in scanning fluid to add more clarity by reducing diffraction and also reduce and eliminate scratches
- Scanned at approximately 10,000 DPI 48 bit — Far beyond the resolution needed to capture all the minutest detail in the small negative and enough bit depth to salvage detail from the brightest highlights to the darkest shadows.
- Cropped by eye precisely to the edge of each image revealing about 15 percent more of each picture than the original prints made from the negative.
- Opened in Photoshop CC™ and adjusted for, brightness, contrast, highlight and shadow recovery, highlight and shadow color, global color and red eye reduction when applicable. Photoshop CC™ is the professional standard for uncompromising image correction.
- Conservatively applied A.I. facial enhancement and A.I. grain reduction for clearer faces and images.
- Both 48 bit Tiff and 24 bit Jpeg files are returned to the client.
Samples
You can click on either of the images below to enlarge and then click the image again to see the full resolution version of the picture.


Price
Prices and billing are in US dollars.
When applicable, GST and/or PST will be added on Canadian orders.
Digital Files Only | Prices |
1 to 5 Discs, per Disc | 36.00 |
6 to 15 Discs, per Disc | 34.00 |
16 to 30 Discs, per Disc | 32.00 |
31 or more, per Disc | 29.00 |
About ordering unedited files
A large part of why our disc scans look so good is that they include a very skilled edit. If you order unedited scans, you save us a lot of time so there’s a huge discount but these are low contrast unclipped 48 bit Tiff files. These are without our normal corrections for color, contrast, dust and scratch removal, highlights and shadow color corrections, highlight and shadow detail recovery, red eye reduction, A.I. grain reduction and A.I. facial enhancement. There is a night and day difference between an edited and unedited disc film scan.
Completely unedited – 50% off above
Positive image of your disc with all the pictures still in a circle.
Unedited with frames cropped from the circle – 40% off above
Same as above but the frames will have been cropped out of the circle into separate files.
Printing
Once your scanning order is completed, we will create an online gallery of the scans, where on a pick and choose basis, you can order prints of the films we have scanned for you. There is absolutely no obligation to order. You can simply use the gallery to preview smaller versions of the scans we will be sending back to you. When we’re done scanning, you will be sent a payment portal to pay for your scan job and with that, you will have immediate access to your gallery.
The print sizes available from our print gallery service vary from 4×4 up to 8.5 x 11 inches. There a four paper option – Heavy weight high quality Inkpress or Canon glossy and luster photo paper, Kodak Archival matte and Hahnemühle Archival cotton rag. Prices vary from .45 for a 4×6 uncropped print to 9.40 for a 8.5 x 11 on Hahnemühle paper. There are also cropping options in the gallery if you desire and if not, images are printed virtually uncropped regardless of the aspect ratio. Unless you order a custom crop, we don’t cut off tops and bottoms of pictures in order to print onto an inappropriate aspect ratio paper.
While we are using archival pigment ink and not cheaper dye based inks, prints made on luster or glossy photo paper wouldn’t be considered archival but they will last a lifetime in an album or portfolio. Prints onto matte paper are truly archival and suitable for framing and long term display.
Here are some more examples of print pricing…
4×5 Glossy with Border | .55 each |
4×5 Luster with Border | .60 each |
4×5 Glossy Borderless | .75 each |
4×5 Luster Borderless | .80 each |
4×5 Archival Matte Bordered | .80 each |
4×5 Archival Matte Borderless | 1.00 each |
4×5 Hahnemühle Archival Cotton Rag Bordered | 1.45 each |
4×5 Hahnemühle Archival Cotton Rag Borderless | 1.65 each |
Supplying your own drive, online delivery or FRI supplies drive?
You are welcome to supply your own drive that will be returned with your original disc films. We need about 1.5 gigabytes of space per disc.
If you have 10 or less disc films, we can do an online delivery via Google drive instead of returning your Tiff and Jpeg files on a drive.
Otherwise, Film Rescue can supply an appropriate sized drive at a fair price.
Return Shipping and Handling
Within USA and Canada | 20.00* |
All others | Contact Us** |
* Shipping charges may be higher for exceptionally heavy, large, or fragile orders.
** Some services may not be available outside of Canada and the USA. Contact us before you send your order.
Turn Around Time
Work is in house from 4 to 12 weeks depending on our workload.