Cine film

Standard 8, Super 8 and 16mm, silent or with magnetic stripe sound.

How it's done

Frame by frame, on a sprocketless scanner that pulls the film gently and photographs each frame individually. That matters for old film, because sprocket holes are usually the first thing to tear, and a machine that grips them will finish the job.

What we don't do is point a camera at a projected image. It's quicker and it's cheaper and the result is a picture of a wall with flicker on it.

Before the scan

Inspection, reel by reel, for splices that have dried out — most old reels have several.
Re-splicing where needed, with fresh tape.
Cleaning with a solvent that lifts dust without touching the emulsion.
Rewinding onto a clean core, because the original reel is often the thing damaging the film.

What comes back

Master file	ProRes 422, one file per reel, no grading, no crop
Viewing file	H.264 MP4, same content, small enough to share
Frame rate	Scanned at the rate it was shot — usually 16 or 18 fps, not forced to 25
Your film	Returned on clean cores in archival cans, unless you ask us not to

What we can't fix

Shrinkage past about 1.5% — the film won't pass the gate. Advanced vinegar syndrome. Film that has been wet and fused into a solid block; we'll try, and sometimes a few metres come free, but that's a rescue rather than a transfer.

We look first and quote after. If a reel is beyond us we say so and don't charge for looking.

Sound. Magnetic stripe on Super 8 can be read if the stripe survives. It often doesn't. We'll tell you before scanning whether there's anything on it.