Disc Film Scanning

*We do NOT digitize disc film with a DSLR. We scan Disc film negatives using a proper scanner. Ours is a Creo iQsmart 3 conservation grade scanner which is a common tool for museums and archives for digitizing film.

Images produced exceed the quality of the original prints. No other format of film is more in need of the best possible quality scan than the lowly Disc film. With some confidence, we can say there is no other provider that can approach this level of quality with a Disc film scan.

*Our scans are 5500 dpi - exceeding the top FADGI standards for the digitization of film, by 1500 dpi  (FADGI is the organization that sets targets for cultural heritage digitization for the US Library of Congress). Our scan produces about a 4 mp file from these tiny frames. A DSLR will give you more and in fact a lot more resolution. Unfortunately, this resolution is completely unnecessary and does nothing at all in terms of increased quality. Film only has so much detail resolving power and that caps out at 4000 dpi or about a 3 mp frame from a disc picture. There are optical issues when magnifying a tiny frame onto the much larger image sensor in the DSLR. There are also color inversions issue due to the bayer pattern of DSLR's sensor. If you're considering a DSLR service, send a disc to them and then send it to us. Compare and if you like theirs better, we'll give your money back. If this worked well we'd use them because they're far faster and a fraction of the cost of a Creo scanner.

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 5500 DPI 48 bit — Enough resolution to capture all the detail in the small negative and enough bit depth to salvage detail from the highlights and 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

Click on either of the images below to enlarge and then click the image again to see the full resolution version of the picture.

Please note: To optimally scan Disc film we need to remove the central hub of the disc. The hub at this point serves virtually no practical purpose. This is the default approach. It is possible to leave the hubs in if it is important to have the Disc remain in their original state but the images won’t be quite as sharp. Please make that request by hand on the order form.

Price

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.

About ordering unedit 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…

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 just a little under a gigabyte per disc of space for each disc you’re having scanned.

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

* Shipping charges may be higher for exceptionally heavy, large, or fragile orders.
** Some options may not be available. Contact us before you send your order.

Turn Around Time

Work is in house from 2 to 6 weeks depending on our workload.