Frame-by-frame capture
Each frame exposed individually at full sensor resolution. No projector, no flicker, no motion-camera averaging.
01 / The Difference
Preservation is not conversion.
Most services transfer film by pointing a video camera at a projector. A preservation lab captures each frame individually, with sprocketless transport safe for damaged stock. The difference is visible at the pixel.
Sprocketless transport
Pulls film by smooth edges, not perforations. Handles vinegar syndrome, brittleness, and shrinkage that conversion services reject.
Archival-grade output
ProRes and uncompressed DPX masters. Survives editing, restoration, and re-mastering decades from now.
Per-scene color
Manual color shot by shot at Preservation tier and above. Not the auto-color that flattens every reel to the same look.
QC against the original
Every master reviewed against the original film before delivery. No silent automation; every reel signed off by hand.
Received · Damaged
Preserved · 2K Scan- A
Detail recovered
Sharper edges, defined texture, faces and text legible at full resolution.
- B
Color rebuilt
Magenta and warm shifts corrected scene by scene without flattening the original look.
- C
Stability restored
Frame-accurate timing locked. No projector flicker, no interpolation judder.
- D
Damage cleaned
Dust, scratches, and minor abrasions reduced. Original film character preserved.
02 / Services
What we preserve.
Same intake, inspection, and care across every order. Pricing is transparent per foot or per unit. Vault delivery is included free for the first year on every order.
Film
Frame-by-frame scanning for Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm. Three tiers: Access, Preservation, Archival. Sound capture supported across all formats.
- Starting
- $0.42 / ft
- Turnaround
- 3 — 5 weeks
Super 88mm16mm35mm
See film options
Tapes
VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS, Hi8, Video8, Digital8, MiniDV, Betamax, U-matic. Time-base correction, broadcast-grade capture, ProRes 422 HQ masters.
- Starting
- $32 / tape
- Turnaround
- 3 — 4 weeks
VHSHi8MiniDVBetaU-matic
See tape options
Photos & Slides
Flatbed scanning — print, slide, and negative individually handled. 1200 — 4000 DPI depending on tier. TIFF + JPEG masters with embedded metadata.
- Starting
- $0.85 / photo
- Turnaround
- 3 — 5 weeks
PrintsAlbumsSlidesNegatives
See photo optionsIncluded with every order
- Frame-by-frame intake inspection
- Barcoded condition report
- Hand cleaning + splice repair as needed
- New plastic industry-standard reels at Preservation+
- Original media returned, insured + tracked
- Vault year-one delivery, free first year
Archive · Museum · UniversityInstitutional digitization
FADGI compliance, chain-of-custody, IMLS / NEH / NHPRC grant support, and a free pilot scan.
Live · Frame 247 of 14,400
2K · ProRes 422 HQ
24 fps · 16-bit
24 fps · 16-bit
The Scanner
Frame by frame. Archival by design.
The same class of equipment used by institutional archives, scanning at preservation grade one frame at a time. Capture is half the work — the right hardware is what makes the other half possible.
- √Sprocketless capstan transport pulls film by smooth edges, not perforations. Tolerates shrinkage up to 2% and brittleness without breakage.
- √Up to 4K, 16-bit RAW capture gives full color and detail headroom — the same kind of acquisition used in institutional archives.
- √Dedicated LED light source delivers even illumination across the gate, cool enough not to add heat stress to fragile stock.
- √Every gauge in one machine — Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, 35mm. No format swaps that introduce risk to your reels.
Post-production
DaVinci, Topaz, and a stack tuned for preservation.
Capture is one half of the work. Color, restoration, and AI assistance is the other half — and it’s where the difference between a passable scan and an archive-grade master shows up.
- √Scene-by-scene color grading in DaVinci Resolve. Primaries, secondaries, and Rec.709 / DCI-P3 deliveries.
- √AI denoise, sharpen, and upscale via Topaz Video AI — only where the source warrants it. Never applied blindly.
- √Frame-level restoration — dust, scratches, grain management, and stabilization where the reel needs it.
- √Full QC pass against the original before delivery. No silent automation; every master is reviewed.
03 / Process
From your hands to an archival master.
Four phases from intake to delivery. You see a written condition report before any chargeable work begins — no work proceeds until you approve.
01Day 1 — 3Intake & inspection
Each reel logged, barcoded, and inspected for shrinkage, vinegar syndrome, and splice integrity — documented in a written condition report sent before any chargeable work.
→ You receive: confirmation + condition report
02Day 4 — 7Prep & cleaning
Hand cleaning, splice repair, and new plastic industry-standard reels at Preservation+. Restoration work is quoted before scanning — see the restoration page.
→ You approve: damage surcharges before work proceeds
03Day 8 — 18Frame-by-frame scan
Sprocketless capstan transport at 2K or 4K, 16-bit RAW acquisition — the same hardware used in institutional archives. Full specs on the equipment page.
→ You receive: scanning-begun note + sample frame
04Day 19 — 24Post & delivery
Scene-by-scene color, output encoding to your tier’s codec, and a full QC pass against the original. Files delivered to your Vault — free first year on every order.
→ You receive: Vault link + insured return shipping
Approve before scan
Damage assessment is shared with you in writing before any chargeable scanning begins. You can decline any intervention and we’ll return your reels untouched.
04 / Trust
No lost packages. No mystery warehouses.
Your reels are barcoded at intake, tracked door-to-door, and never leave the lab for third-party handoff. Every chargeable step is reviewed with you in writing before it happens.
01 · Approve before scan
Written condition report first
You see the inspection report and final estimate in writing before any chargeable work. Decline anything and we return your reels untouched.
See sample report →02 · Insured + tracked
$2,500 minimum, both directions
Every shipment insured door-to-door, FedEx or UPS commercial accounts. Coverage matches order value with a $2,500 floor; higher on request.
See shipping policy →03 · In-house workflow
No third-party handoff
Your reels never leave our lab for outsourced work. Single chain of custody from intake through delivery.
See liability policy →04 · Original returned
Barcoded reels, freshly spliced
Each reel hand-cleaned, repaired, spliced where needed, and rewound onto new plastic industry-standard reels. No storage, no reselling, originals always come home.
See cleaning workflow →05 / Estimate
What will your project cost?
Transparent pricing across film, tape, and photo. Sound capture is the only standard film surcharge; rush turnaround and damaged-media interventions are quoted separately and approved in writing before work begins.
- Film · Access tier (8mm / S8 / 16mm)
- $0.42 / ft
- Film · Preservation ★ (8mm / S8 / 16mm)
- $0.98 / ft
- Film · Archival (8mm / S8 / 16mm)
- $1.65 / ft
- Film · 35mm Preservation
- $1.45 / ft
- Tape · standard formats
- $32 / tape
- Photo · Standard print scan
- $0.85 / photo
- Sound capture surcharge
- +$0.18 / ft
- Order minimum · film
- $150
Build your order
See an itemized estimate for your exact order — choose format, reel or unit count, tier, sound, rush, and output media. Vault year-one delivery included free on every order.
Go to the estimator →See full pricing reference →On the clockFilm doesn’t wait.
Film doesn’t wait.
Neither should you.
Color fade, vinegar syndrome, brittleness, and mold are active right now in every reel that’s been stored above 60°F. The earlier the scan, the better the archive.
Read the deterioration guide →For archives & institutions
FADGI-ready. RFP-ready. Grant-ready.
For state historical societies, university libraries, museums, and archives. Chain-of-custody documentation, structured metadata schemas, FADGI 3-star and 4-star output, and grant-ready technical responses for IMLS, NEH, and NHPRC applications.
01
FADGI Compliance
3-star and 4-star scanning tiers aligned with federal digitization standards.
02
Chain of Custody
Every reel logged, barcoded, documented at every workflow step.
03
RFP Response
Structured technical responses to institutional procurement processes.
04
LTO Archival Storage
Long-term tape storage for digital masters. Per-TB pricing.
05
Grant Proposal Support
Technical sections drafted for IMLS, NEH, and NHPRC applications.
06
Full Metadata Schemas
PBCore, Dublin Core, or custom — worked into your DAM on delivery.
Free written assessment
Send photos. Get an honest read on what you have.
Photograph the edge of one or two reels and send a short description. We respond within one business day with format identification, condition flags, recovery prognosis, and an estimated total — before you ship anything. No charge, no commitment.
Especially useful if your reels show vinegar smell, color shift, brittleness, or mold — or if you simply don’t know what format you have. See the deterioration guide or the format ID guide for the visual cues we look at.
06 / Selected work
Film, properly preserved.
A range of formats and tiers from recent orders. Frames shown here are anonymized placeholders until customers opt in to publicly attribute their scans.
Super 8 · 1972
2K · ProRes HQFamily summer collection, Kodachrome original
Institutional · 1962
4K · DPX + LTOState Historical Society, FADGI 4-star + LTO archival
16mm · 1968
4K · DPXIndependent doc reel, optical sound in sync
8mm · 1958
2K · ProResFamily wedding reels, cement splices
35mm · 1954
4K · DPXCinema short, safety-base acetate
Kodachrome · 1976
2KWedding film, dye-based color preserved
Customer-attribution program in development
Customers can opt in to share scan samples after delivery — details on the about page.
07 / From the Blog
Learn before you send.
Preservation is as much education as it is technology. Start with the pieces most readers come back to.
How to identify your film format: the complete visual guide
Every format looks similar at first — sprocket holes, reels, same plastic. Here's how to tell Super 8 from 8mm, 16mm from 9.5mm, with photographs of each.
12 min read
Film deterioration: what's happening to your film right now
Color fade. Vinegar syndrome. Shrinkage. Mold. Four failure modes that are active in every stored reel — and the signs it's time to digitize.
16 min read
Archival scan vs standard transfer: what you're actually buying
The price differences between services seem small until you see the scans side-by-side. A pixel-level comparison of projector transfer and frame-by-frame scanning.
12 min read08 / Questions
Answered honestly.
The questions that come up most often. Longer answers in the full FAQ.
Start a Project
Start preserving your collection.
Film, tape, photos, slides — same intake, same care, same approve-before-scan trust. Two paths in; pick whichever matches where you are.
01 / I Know What I Have
Calculate & order
You know your format, reel count, and tier. Use the calculator and send your media with the label we return.
Go to calculator →02 / I’m Not SureTell us what you have
Not sure what format you have, or have a mixed collection? Describe it and we’ll respond within one business day.
Send an inquiry →- Free written assessment
- Approve before any scan
- Original media always returned
Stay notified
One email a month. Nothing else.
Preservation techniques, condition-care advice for original media, and new posts from the FPL field guide. No promotions, no sales pushes, no algorithm games.
No promotions · Unsubscribe with one click