We convert 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film using high fidelity digital transfer technology. Our aerial-capture process produces uniform lighting, unmatched clarity, and stunning color depth. Your film is converted to digital video in the form of uncompressed video files and/or a playable DVD disc that is compatible with almost all DVD players.

Prior to digitizing your film we fix minor repairs, add leader, and splice the film as necessary. We then carefully clean your film with anti-static solvent and visually inspect it for dust and lint. Multiple small reels are consolidated into larger reels for ease of transferring and storage.

Transfer Process
Our process uses an aerial capture method and a 3CCD camera. This combination produces extremely high quality, flicker-free video with uniform light distribution and perfect focus. It has the following distinct advantages:
Frame-by-frame process (instead of real-time): film frames are digitized one by one, then reassembled into a digital video file that operates at the correct frame rate without any frame blending or interference.

Color correction
We use a digital process to remove color casts (typically red, yellow, or blue). We also try to compensate for under- or over-exposed film.

See more detail and transfer options in the Economy vs. Regular vs. Enhanced Transfer section below.

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We transfer both optically- and magnetically-recorded film sound. We optimize the sound quality by controlling the gain and reducing the noise. The audio is then seamlessly integrated with the video.
Please note that we transfer sound off SUPER 8mm film and 16mm film.

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After your film is digitized we edit out leaders and blank spots and perform a detailed quality check. We then burn to high quality DVD-R discs that are compatible with almost all DVD players.

By default we set up your DVD for auto-play and we install a chapter point at the beginning of each reel so you can quickly advance or retreat to any point in the movie. A single DVD disc holds up to 2 hours of video, which equals about 1600' of 8mm film or 3200' of 16mm film.

We do not install any copyright protection, so you are free to make copies of your DVD.

If you plan to do any serious editing it is best to use full qulity digital video files ("uncompressed" AVI or QT). We can provide these on mini-DV, DVD-ROM, or better yet an external hard drive. Note that uncompressed files occupy about 15GB per hour of video at the default bit rate of 4Mb/s and resolution of 720x480.

Even if you don't have immediate plans to edit your video we recommend that you preserve an uncompressed master copy of your film. It will be invaluable in the future.

We can prepare your clips in the proper format and upload them to Phanfare, YouTube, and MyspaceTV. Please provide your user information and note that clips may be up to 10 minutes long and up to 100MB in size.
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With your involvement we can edit your video and customize your DVD any way you like. Following are the most popular options:

We specialize in doing custom productions so contact us about your project. You'll be impressed with our efficiency and reasonable prices.


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Please review the difference between both processes below:

Economy Transfer
This process uses an aerial capture method and a 3CCD camera. This combination produces extremely high quality, flicker-free video with uniform light distribution and perfect focus.

No color or exposure correction and no audio transfer. We also offer an Economy Transfer process for archival purposes.

Note: Currently Economy Transfer is not available for 16mm film.

Click here to see a sample of an Economy transfer


Regular Transfer
This process also uses an aerial capture method and a 3CCD camera. It also uses:

Frame-by-frame process (instead of real-time): film frames are digitized one by one, then reassembled into a digital video file that operates at the correct frame rate without any frame blending or interference.

Color correction: We apply an overall digital color correction to the entire order to correct for the slight yellowish tint resulting from the transfer. In addition, we scan your project for color fading due to aged film and correct these problems once every 50 feet. We generally do not correct for exposure problems in the Regular Color Correction. An example of the Regular Color Correction can be seen here. This also enables audio transfer for sound film.

As a result, Regular Transfer produces video that is sharper, clearer, and more vivid than Economy Transfer. It also enables the video to operate at precisely the correct frame rate, which is required for audio transfer.

Click here to see a sample of an Regular transfer


Enhanced Transfer
This process has all the advantages of Regular transfer with additional benefits:

For this process we perform our color correction with greater attention to detail. There are frequently exposure problems in home movies that can be greatly improved with our color correction software, producing images from areas that were previously too dark. We will correct exposure and color problems up to 3 times per 50 feet.

Enhanced transfer is charged by the hour as “Editing & Enhanced Services".

Click here to see a sample of an Enhanced transfer.

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