FAQ

You will not provide us with any payment information. This is all done securely using a “Stripe” encrypted payment portal which we will link you to. From there you can pay with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or Paypal. With most of the work we do, this will happen only after we have completed the work. The exception is with the developing of lost and found undeveloped movie film. In this case we will request the minimum charge before we begin the work and the difference upon completion if we are successful. We reserve the right to take a deposit on very large orders of previously developed film that we are digitizing.

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All prices are USD.  Billing is done from our main lab, situated in Saskatchewan, Canada.  Some credit card issuers charge an extra fee for international transactions.  This is not something we have control over. We do not receive any part of these fees and we can’t make reimbursement.  If you’re unsure if any fees will result from your payment to us, please contact your card issuer to confirm.

Please include a copy of your order form if possible. Otherwise, include your name, contact info and the order submission number emailed to you when you submitted the order form. It’s a good idea to put your film in a ziplock / small plastic bag — please re-use a clean bag if you can.  A small box is the safest thing to ship in.  Be careful to protect your items if you’re using a bubble envelope or mailer.

For U.S.A orders sent by First Class mail:  if your package is over 10 ounces and / or thicker than ½ inch, you need a USPS label with a barcode i.e. not just postage stamps. We advise you to get a tracking number. The postal address is on the bottom of our order form.

For U.S.A orders sent by courier (e.g Fedex, UPS etc): Westby, Montana is a remote town and couriers will often arrive outside of practical hours.  If you request a signature, delivery of your package could be delayed.  Please include our phone number on the shipping label: 1-800-329-8988. The street address is on the bottom of our order form.

All orders from outside of the USA should be sent to Canada; the address is on the bottom of our order form. Starting January 2025, Film Rescue Europe will no longer be processing expired film and the cost of forwarding film back and forth to the main lab in Canada has become prohibitive.  If you are in Europe or Britain, please do not send your expired film to Den Haag.

You are responsible for all costs involved in shipping to Film Rescue International  Please fill out courier paperwork as bill to sender.  Any fees paid by us, on your behalf, will be invoiced back to you before we begin work.  We reserve the right to refuse delivery if payment is required, particularly when sender has made no prior contact with us.
 
If you are shipping your order to Canada from overseas, you may be required to fill out a declaration for customs.  The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) made a National Customs Ruling specifically on valuation of expired, undeveloped film (NCR 8000002729): value is based on the silver content… not sentimental or replacement value.

-if you have undeveloped still or motion film for processing, the amount of silver will vary with the size/format of film but will never exceed $1.00 per film.  If required, use tariff classification number 3704009000 and reference NCR 8000002729

-if you have previously developed still film negatives or slides for scanning, there is no silver content value.  If required, use tariff classification number 3705009900 and reference NCR 8000002729

-if you have previously developed motion film for scanning, there is no silver content value.  If required, use tariff classification number 3706909000 and reference NCR 8000002729

Cycle turnaround time may be as short as 8 weeks after the cutoff date and more than 15 weeks after the cutoff date during a particularly busy cycle. It depends what you’re sending; still film processing is typically completed before motion film processing.

Unlike a conventional processing lab that may have one or two large-volume processes under their roof, we have 12 small-volume processes. This creates the need to complete one process before we move onto another, mixing chemical and preparing for each before we move to the next. It is not until all the film is developed that scanning and transferring begins. Once that step is complete, the digital work is done, orders are invoiced and then the uploading begins. Please do not wait until near the beginning of a cycle to send us your film. This not only slows down the lengthy administration process that at the beginning of each cycle (thus, ultimately slowing down our turn-around time) but you also risk missing the cycle cutoff altogether.

Doing this work properly and at a reasonable price takes time. We encourage you to have a look at and consider others offering a similar service.

Normally this isn’t a problem but keep in mind we deal with hundreds of rolls of film in the dark and the priority there is keeping track of your film and not the film’s packaging/container. 95% of the time we are returning the packaging the client has sent in. If we can’t find the exact packaging we’ll provide back as near as identical packaging as we can find. So…we don’t guarantee we get you back the film packaging/container sent in with your order but we probably will.

Note: many cartridges, magazines and cassettes are damaged to remove the film. This is by design. Most of these were considered disposable.

Online delivery of digital files is automatically included with our still film processing and scanning services.  You may request online delivery of digital files for motion film processing and scanning orders, as well as video and audio conversions.  The exceptions are motion film TIFF image sequences, large ProRes 4k files, or files that require over 115gb of storage.  Please consult us prior to sending your order if you’re considering online file delivery of 4K files or you have a large number of movie films / videos to convert.

With MOVIE FILM, when we capture it on our scanners, a very large high quality computer video file is created. To create a DVD that will play in a home DVD player, we must compress them to a fraction of their size because the amount of data a DVD can store is very limited.

With VIDEO TAPE, the bit rate we capture at is much higher than what we are able to do to a DVD with a two hour play time. While this isn’t quite a critical as it is with movie film, it’s still a real quality issue.
To add to the issues of lower quality when converting movie films and video tapes to DVD, DVD was designed by the movie industry to be hard to copy. While not impossible, doing the DVD “rip” that is required to make the copy, further degrades the image.

The way people approach home video has evolved and more and more of our clientele now request editable computer files. They are much better than a DVD for:

• Being a high quality master
• Home computer editing
• Copying and creating multiple DVDs
• Versatility
• File conversions for iPod, home entertainment networks and various devices
• Remaining current with whatever the latest media is
• For simply looking better

Even if you don’t understand the technology, it is definitely worthwhile keeping a high quality digital master for family members that do or that will. DVD is slowly becoming what VHS was in the 90s – robust computer files will remain relevant and are expandable into the future.

A master image sequence is essentially each and every frame of your movie film, saved as a high resolution jpeg or tiff image file – one folder per film. In the movie industry it is also called a “numbered image sequence” and it’s a common editing format in that industry. If you have a powerful enough computer and some professional video editing software, you can edit from these.

Ultimately, for most people it’s a sort insurance policy against obsolescence because both Tiff and Jpegs are comparatively speaking, very old formats and still remain the most common image files for (respectively) professional and consumer use. Many different video codecs, file types and/or containers may come and go but these will likely be around into the future.

The image sequences is also your scan exactly as it comes off the scanner with no edits or adjustment at all. This can be valuable for a future editor.

Last, it’s kind of cool having a folder with every single picture on a film as an image file. It’s easy to go into that folder and find some interesting still images of your family or event. Not that they’ll be perfect, because the frame is so tiny, but they can really be worthwhile.

Please Note: We will require a hard drive to put your master image sequence on because the files are very large. We will advise you on what size of drive you will need to provide. Please make sure you send us a large enough drive! Alternately, we can supply an appropriate new drive for you. You do have the option of not taking the master image sequence version of your film but in good conscience, we can’t advise it.

Regardless of the size of your order, if you select MOV, MP4, DNX or master image sequence, a flash drive or portable hard drive is required. We can supply a brand new drive for you (price varies) but you will likely find better pricing for the drive at a local source.

As a rule of thumb, allow 6 gigs of drive space per 50 feet of film. In most cases this will be overkill but it also means we won’t need to be calling to make other arrangements — and causing delays with your order — should a too-small of drive be provided for the requested file type and compression.
Please note: Any used drive provided to us must be reformatted and all previous data on the drive will be eliminated.

Rushes and unique set ups are not encouraged but are available. Unlike a conventional photo lab that deals with larger volumes of a single film format of only one process type, Film Rescue is processing smaller volumes of film, multiple formats and has 12 unique processes. This creates the need to process in batches — first completing the processing of all film before moving onto scanning and transferring. To break from this cycle is not always possible.  Please contact us if you wish to arrange for rush processing.

Rush Fees

• Still film processing – 200.00 plus all other charges
• Motion picture film processing – 600.00 plus all other charges
• All other services – We do our best to accommodate when possible with no extra charges – please enquire.

Please keep in mind that your film may be decades beyond its process before date and what we are doing here is a salvage job. We do our best to get good quality images from these very old films but the results are highly variable. The quality we get range from good to just barely discernable.

• Kodachrome ~1936 to 1992~ — Can only be processed into a B&W negative which is then transferred to a B&W positive to digital video. There is no color processing option for this film anywhere on earth to beyond the stars.
• Ektachrome 160 process EM-26 ~1983 to 1997~ – On the order for you can choose B&W negative or color negative processing. The price is the same either way if we’re successful salvaging something from the film but B&W is the safer approach and a much lower price is charged if the film turns out blank. The color process is done by hand in a tank and is more time consuming therefore the price is higher if blank.
• Ektachrome 160 process EM-25 ~1972 to 1983~ – On the order for you can choose B&W negative or color negative processing. The price is the same either way if we’re successful salvaging something from the film but B&W is the safer approach and a much lower price is charged if the film turns out blank. The color process is done by hand in a tank and is more time consuming therefore the price is higher if blank.
• All other movie film – By default these are processed into a B&W negative which is then transferred to B&W positive on digital video. Some film, such as Agfachrome Super 8, can be developed into color, but there may be different versions of the film, with different typical outcomes; please email us a picture of the film label and we can advise you.

Typical chance of recognizable image on properly exposed and stored film:

We keep very careful records on how a specific film is responding in a specific process. None of our processes are the same as what was originally intended for the film. All have been modified and tailored to our past experience with each film type, brand and format. The original process is not at all appropriate for salvaging images from long expired film.

In order to salvage the best possible image from a film, many of these processes result in a black & white negative image, even though it may be a color film. In our opinion, it’s better to get a higher quality image in black & white than a lower one in color, or to get something recognizable in black & white versus nothing at all in color.

These films were manufactured pre-1983 and are a minimum of 4 decades beyond the process before date on the original packaging. The availability of one of the chemical components is no longer available (worldwide). This was a formaldehyde pre-hardener that was required to stop the emulsion from falling off the base of the film during the process. We’re able to not use this chemical by running a color process at a much lower temperature but with that comes some additional loss to color fidelity.

If you are confident that your film has been stored consistently in cool temperatures and/or color is extremely important to you, specify that you would like color processing on our order form. If you know that your film was not stored properly or if you are unsure of the storage conditions, the black & white negative process we offer is the safer approach to salvaging something from your film (especially for non-Kodak brand films requiring EM-25 process).  Transfer from a negative to positive (black and white) will allow you to view it from video.

You can tell if you have EM-25 process Kodak Ektachrome film by looking at where Ektachrome is written on the film cassette label. If there’s a blue rectangle background behind the word Ektachrome, you have EM-25 process. (EM-26 process Kodak Ektachrome has EM-26 written on the label and the word Ektachrome will be on either a white or yellow background).

When Kodachrome was first introduced it had a patent. When the patent ran out, 3M copied the film quite successfully and it was released under their own name as well as several department store brands such as Sears, K-Mart (Focal) and others. Kodachrome, unlike most other films, didn’t have the color (dye coupler) built into it but was instead it was added during the process. These dye couplers are no longer available making this film impossible to properly process into color. If your film has a process designation with a “K” as it’s prefix, such as K-12 or K-14 then your film is a Kodachrome type film. Kodachrome is of course also a Kodachrome type film even if the processing designation isn’t listed.

It can be argued that even at 480 lines of vertical lines of resolution is plenty on a tiny 8mm frame but ultimately, there are clarity differences. On the other hand some say that the lower resolution film transfer hides some of the grain of the film. What we find is that up to a point, having more resolution and watching on a higher resolution screen gets you closer to the experience of how the film looks projected on a vintage film projector and is truer to the original. In the end though…more resolution doesn’t hurt and you can always down convert to lower resolution if desired. That doesn’t work properly the other way around.

For this sample, a Kodacolor-X roll film from the 1960s. What you see in the left image is the film processed into a B&W negative – the safest way to process all outdated color film. This was then scanned. Then we ran this film through a further chemical process known as film acceleration, to bring the negative into color, as you see in the right image. This film didn’t chemically accelerate all that well into color. Instead, we have the option of digitally colorizing the scans made from the B&W version of the film. This is shown in the bottom picture.
What we have found is that these very old rolls of film are best made color by digitally colorizing them but in the case of newer color film, the acceleration process is the superior approach.
Kodachrome or Kodachrome type film and B&W film can only be made into color through digital colorization.
Digital colorization creates the overall mood of a color image but the software and our technicians will not know the true color of objects in the picture. I.E. This man’s blue shirt as seen in the accelerated version has turned out red.
Any film that is in poor to very poor condition in B&W negative will not accelerate or digitally colorize well at all.

Here are some more samples. Two Kodak films from the same client both from  the early 1990s.

While both of these pictures are from separate films from early 1990s Kodak film shot by the same client, the end results in color were very different.  This shows just how unpredictable color processing of expired color film can be.  This is why we first process and scan all color film into B&W first before proceeding into color (if requested).

• Color films less than 10 years beyond their process before date have a very good chance of accelerating well into color.
• Color films 10 to 20 years beyond their process before date aren’t too likely to have quality color but the effect can be interesting and perhaps “artistic”.
• B&W and Kodachrome type films can only be colorized…acceleration is impossible.
• The cooler your film was kept over time the more likely you are to get good color.
• It is rare to have a film older than 30 years old that would ever render decent color by accelerating – expect highly distressed color images.
• Kodak brand films (including Seattle Film Works, Signature and RGB) and Scotch 3M film are more likely to end up in color than Fuji and Konica brand films.

The “Online Gallery” is where you get to first view your pictures. These galleries are paid access for the amount of the invoice we will create for you. We won’t request payment until the work is completed. Once paid, you’ll get immediate access to your pictures. Payment is made securely through a “Stripe” encrypted payment portal we link you to. There you will be able to pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Paypal.

If you like you may also give access to to family members by providing them with your login credentials providing you’re comfortable with them having access to your contact information. No payment information is stored at the gallery. Should they want to place their own order they can do that and upon check out, provide their own payment information and shipping address without affecting your information.

There are two types of galleries…

Galleries for previously undeveloped film

These galleries have only small preview images so you can tell what is on your film and what the condition of the pictures are. You are able to download these directly to your computer but if you want large pixel dimension digital files and or prints of various sizes, you will need to add them to your cart and pay an additional fee upon check out.

Galleries for previously developed film

These galleries have medium sized preview images of the already developed film you had sent us for scanning. You are able to download these directly to your computer but we will also be delivering to you much larger files either in an online folder or physically on a drive. From the gallery you do have the option of ordering prints if you want or if not, you can from the gallery request that your film originals be sent back to you. We don’t do that upon completing the order because many people order prints and with that, the film is automatically returned. This can save clients unnecessary shipping fees.

On our order form you have the following options for most of your color photogrpahic film:

1. Process as B&W negative, the safest and most economical option.
2. Process as B&W negative, then accelerate into color when the quality of the B&W version warrants it (at our technician’s discretion). Add 10.00 per film to usual processing charge.
3. Process as B&W negative, then accelerate into color regardless of the quality of the B&W negative.  Add 10.00 per film even if the color version comes out blank.

If you are on a budget then option one is a good choice. If color is important to you then option two is a good choice and we will only “accelerate” into color if we think there’s a decent chance of getting fair color image. Option three is for those that aren’t concerned about the price and want to make sure they have seen all possible options, no holds barred.

Please Note: Kodachrome or Kodachrome-type films and black & white films can’t be accelerated.

These emulate the look of the past with wide borders and glossy paper. If your images are B&W, the prints have a beautiful, even grayscale uncommon with most modern printing services.

Our B&W prints are done on special printers (Epson K3) designed to give high quality B&W images. Most photo finishers are printing onto light sensitive color paper. When a B&W white image is printed onto light sensitive color paper, there is a color difference between the dark parts of your picture and the light. Normally the shadows being green and the highlight magenta. Our printers eliminate this problem with consistent tone across the gray scale.

After scanning, images are carefully adjusted for brightness and contrast. There is also a good degree of spotting done to take out the worst of the dust and scuffing that is extremely common on these old films. This due not only to the fact a lot of dust will have sunk into the gelatin emulsion and is impossible to remove but also these are almost always very low contrast negatives. When you bring a low contrast negative back up to normal contrast, it make every imperfection in the film far more obvious. These are the images that you will see in your gallery and that are available for free downloading as a small sized image or to purchase as a large sized image.

Some images will benefit a good deal from our “conservation grade re-scan” but not most. If your picture is much lighter or darker on the edges of the frame than in the center or if the picture has a lot of pitting or dust settled into the emulsion, order the image with hands on retouching may be worth while. You can contact us specifically regarding your order if you have questions.

No. We don’t offer this because too often in the past we had films returned to us that the client was unable to scan due to the condition of the film, whereas we were able to scan the film because we are experienced in dealing with scanning very dense and/or faded negatives. This isn’t to say that your negatives won’t be home-scannable but we don’t know people’s capabilities or hardware. Because we have a “no image no charge” guarantee when you choose our Safest Possible Process, we need to be able be fully in control of the outcome to honor that. We have even had labs that have returned negatives for us to scan because they couldn’t. We have never had the reverse…a negative we thought was blank yet someone else was able to pull images from it.

Here are some reasons why the scanning is best left to us….

• Color films that are accelerated into color after first processing them safely to B&W negative: the B&W version must be scanned for security before doing that step. Once we accelerate to color the B&W negative version is gone forever from the film. We absolutely need to scan these.
• Some negatives turn out as dense as welding glass and conventional scanners can’t see through them.
• Some negatives have such an extremely faint image on them that they can’t be seen with the preview scan on a conventional scanner, making them very difficult to locate your marquee correctly during preview. Auto frame selection will not work on these negatives. Do not assume if you don’t see images upon a quick inspection that there is nothing there.
• Some films such as GAF cassettes and Triple Print blue label films are processed into an unstable reflective negative that begins fading after processing. Not only do they need to be scanned right away, they are scanned wet because the contrast on the film is much higher when wet and they can’t be scanned on a normal scanner because light will not pass through them.

Rushes and unique set ups are not encouraged but are available. Unlike a conventional photo lab that deals with larger volumes of a single film format of only one process type, Film Rescue is processing smaller volumes of film, multiple formats and has 12 unique processes. This creates the need to process in batches — first completing the processing of all film before moving onto scanning and transferring. To break from this cycle is not always possible.  Please contact us if you wish to arrange for rush processing.

Rush Fees

• Still film processing – 200.00 plus all other charges
• Motion picture film processing – 600.00 plus all other charges
• All other services – We do our best to accommodate when possible with no extra charges – please enquire.

After scanning, images are adjusted by human eye for brightness, color (when applicable), sharpness and contrast. This work is done using the world’s standard professional photo editor Photoshop CC. The difference between this approach and the approach used by a conventional photo finisher is night and day. Most commercial high volume scanners allow only for a very simple brightness and a color adjustments. Using Photoshop CC is integral to doing this work properly.

We keep very careful records on how a specific film is responding in a specific process. None of our processes are the same as what was originally intended for the film. All have been modified and tailored to our past experience with each film type, brand and format. The original process is not at all appropriate for salvaging images from long expired film.

In order to salvage the best possible image from a film, many of these processes result in a black & white negative image, even though it may be a color film. In our opinion, it’s better to get a higher quality image in black & white than a lower one in color, or to get something recognizable in black & white versus nothing at all in color.

When we are deciding whether to scan or not scan a client’s film, we are doing a visual inspection of the processed negative. It’s often difficult to tell what the final quality will be without scanning and enhancing the negative. Therefore, we’ll continue with scanning and enhancing any film that we think we can see something on. We don’t want to be in the position of trying to make a subjective determination as to what may or may not be important to a client. One person’s trash is another’s treasure.

A recognizable image is any one of the following…

• If there is a person in the picture, you can tell it’s a person…not necessarily who that person is
• If you can identify the subject or setting/location of a picture
• If you can identify objects in a picture

An image that is out of focus, double-exposed or low quality can still be recognizable.

When Kodachrome was first introduced it had a patent. When the patent ran out, 3M copied the film quite successfully and it was released under their own name as well as several department store brands such as Sears, K-Mart (Focal) and others. Kodachrome, unlike most other films, didn’t have the color (dye coupler) built into it but was instead it was added during the process. These dye couplers are no longer available making this film impossible to properly process into color. If your film has a process designation with a “K” as it’s prefix, such as K-12 or K-14 then your film is a Kodachrome type film. Kodachrome is of course also a Kodachrome type film even if the processing designation isn’t listed.

These are only intended as preview images so you can see what is on your film and what the quality of the images are. If you have important images, we do recommend you add them to the cart to get the much higher resolution version of the picture. Our idea is that this works as a sort of insurance policy for people that either don’t know what is on their film or the condition of the film. Clients with pictures that are not interesting for whatever reason will pay less than clients with pictures that are important enough to them to place orders within the gallery.

If  you order the highest resolution download from your gallery, the image will be approximately 3400 pixels on the short dimension of the frame. Therefor a square picture such as from a 126 camera or many medium format cameras that take square pictures would be 3400 x 3400 pixels whereas a common 35mm film will have a resolution of  3400 x 5100 pixels. Given how grainy these very old films being processed now are, that’s plenty of resolution to capture all of the nuance in the film emulsion.

With MOVIE FILM, when we capture it on our scanners, a very large high quality computer video file is created. To create a DVD that will play in a home DVD player, we must compress them to a fraction of their size because the amount of data a DVD can store is very limited.

With VIDEO TAPE, the bit rate we capture at is much higher than what we are able to do to a DVD with a two hour play time. While this isn’t quite a critical as it is with movie film, it’s still a real quality issue.
To add to the issues of lower quality when converting movie films and video tapes to DVD, DVD was designed by the movie industry to be hard to copy. While not impossible, doing the DVD “rip” that is required to make the copy, further degrades the image.

The way people approach home video has evolved and more and more of our clientele now request editable computer files. They are much better than a DVD for:

• Being a high quality master
• Home computer editing
• Copying and creating multiple DVDs
• Versatility
• File conversions for iPod, home entertainment networks and various devices
• Remaining current with whatever the latest media is
• For simply looking better

Even if you don’t understand the technology, it is definitely worthwhile keeping a high quality digital master for family members that do or that will. DVD is slowly becoming what VHS was in the 90s – robust computer files will remain relevant and are expandable into the future.

A master image sequence is essentially each and every frame of your movie film, saved as a high resolution jpeg or tiff image file – one folder per film. In the movie industry it is also called a “numbered image sequence” and it’s a common editing format in that industry. If you have a powerful enough computer and some professional video editing software, you can edit from these.

Ultimately, for most people it’s a sort insurance policy against obsolescence because both Tiff and Jpegs are comparatively speaking, very old formats and still remain the most common image files for (respectively) professional and consumer use. Many different video codecs, file types and/or containers may come and go but these will likely be around into the future.

The image sequences is also your scan exactly as it comes off the scanner with no edits or adjustment at all. This can be valuable for a future editor.

Last, it’s kind of cool having a folder with every single picture on a film as an image file. It’s easy to go into that folder and find some interesting still images of your family or event. Not that they’ll be perfect, because the frame is so tiny, but they can really be worthwhile.

Please Note: We will require a hard drive to put your master image sequence on because the files are very large. We will advise you on what size of drive you will need to provide. Please make sure you send us a large enough drive! Alternately, we can supply an appropriate new drive for you. You do have the option of not taking the master image sequence version of your film but in good conscience, we can’t advise it.

Regardless of the size of your order, if you select MOV, MP4, DNX or master image sequence, a flash drive or portable hard drive is required. We can supply a brand new drive for you (price varies) but you will likely find better pricing for the drive at a local source.

As a rule of thumb, allow 6 gigs of drive space per 50 feet of film. In most cases this will be overkill but it also means we won’t need to be calling to make other arrangements — and causing delays with your order — should a too-small of drive be provided for the requested file type and compression.
Please note: Any used drive provided to us must be reformatted and all previous data on the drive will be eliminated.

Because we only transfer to DVD when requested, and only as a secondary format along with an editable computer file, the issue of organizing your films before you send them to us is sort of moot. Once you have your film scan back, you can organize your film in what ever order you like on your computer. Each film reel you send us will be it’s own computer file which you can name and edit how you like. Your film will be returned on the original reels, with any original containers.

• Our 8mm, Super 8mm, 9.5mm and 16mm transfers are 1536p resolution. 42 percent more resolution than standard HD which is 1080p. That calculates  to a 5200 dpi scan on 16mm film and almost 12,000 dpi on an 8mm frame. In each case more than enough resolution to capture all of the useful detail in your film.
• Your video files will be returned to you at the projection speed of your original film material. Regular 8mm film is run at 16 frames per second, Super 8mm at 18 fps, 9.5mm at 16fps, and 16mm film at either 16fps or 24 fps.
• When clients supply small reels, they are not spliced onto larger reels (which is common with most transfer providers). Each reel becomes its own chapter title or digital file. The client is encouraged to number the reels in the order they wish their film to be transferred. Chapter titles or file names up to 18 characters can be supplied with each reel as well.
• With all options, film is cleaned before transfer. Cleaning will remove the worst of the dirt but usually some will still remain.
• Minor damage to film is repaired without additional charge. If damage is more severe the client will be contacted and quoted as to the cost of the repair before the transfer proceeds.
• Scene by scene color correction, grain reduction, wet gate and extra cleaning are all available as options at an additional fee.

Below are two sample frame grabs from our transfer. Keep in mind these are coming from tiny pieces of film.

It can be argued that even at 480 lines of vertical lines of resolution is plenty on a tiny 8mm frame but ultimately, there are clarity differences. On the other hand some say that the lower resolution film transfer hides some of the grain of the film. What we find is that up to a point, having more resolution and watching on a higher resolution screen gets you closer to the experience of how the film looks projected on a vintage film projector and is truer to the original. In the end though…more resolution doesn’t hurt and you can always down convert to lower resolution if desired. That doesn’t work properly the other way around.

The “Online Gallery” is where you get to first view your pictures. These galleries are paid access for the amount of the invoice we will create for you. We won’t request payment until the work is completed. Once paid, you’ll get immediate access to your pictures. Payment is made securely through a “Stripe” encrypted payment portal we link you to. There you will be able to pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or Paypal.

If you like you may also give access to to family members by providing them with your login credentials providing you’re comfortable with them having access to your contact information. No payment information is stored at the gallery. Should they want to place their own order they can do that and upon check out, provide their own payment information and shipping address without affecting your information.

There are two types of galleries…

Galleries for previously undeveloped film

These galleries have only small preview images so you can tell what is on your film and what the condition of the pictures are. You are able to download these directly to your computer but if you want large pixel dimension digital files and or prints of various sizes, you will need to add them to your cart and pay an additional fee upon check out.

Galleries for previously developed film

These galleries have medium sized preview images of the already developed film you had sent us for scanning. You are able to download these directly to your computer but we will also be delivering to you much larger files either in an online folder or physically on a drive. From the gallery you do have the option of ordering prints if you want or if not, you can from the gallery request that your film originals be sent back to you. We don’t do that upon completing the order because many people order prints and with that, the film is automatically returned. This can save clients unnecessary shipping fees.

These emulate the look of the past with wide borders and glossy paper. If your images are B&W, the prints have a beautiful, even grayscale uncommon with most modern printing services.

Our B&W prints are done on special printers (Epson K3) designed to give high quality B&W images. Most photo finishers are printing onto light sensitive color paper. When a B&W white image is printed onto light sensitive color paper, there is a color difference between the dark parts of your picture and the light. Normally the shadows being green and the highlight magenta. Our printers eliminate this problem with consistent tone across the gray scale.

Unlike most other scanning services, we don’t offer a myriad of confusing scan resolutions at different prices. We simply give you a large enough scan from whatever format of film you give us to make a high quality large blow up print of your images. This providing the original integrity of your image lends itself to this. We provide large enough scans for virtually all practical purposes. For those that would like to know what resolution we scan at please see the chart below.

These are the approximate scan resolutions for the most common film sizes (not budget 35 mm and APS scans):

Scan resolution for all film formats listed in our prices will allow for at very least a 20 inch blow up (3600 pixels) on the short dimension of the frame. A square frame can be enlarged to 20 x 20 print with no digital artifacting and a rectangular 3:2 aspect ratio picture (35mm) to a 20 by 30 print. This is enough resolution for virtually all practical purposes. Print scans are done at 600 dpi allowing for more than 2 times the enlargement size of the original print, although – scans from prints are not optimal for blow ups. When possible provide the negative the print was made from as a higher quality scan is possible from the negative.