Who could have envisioned digitizing film in Junior High? Remember when the best day of school was the day that you got to watch a film during class? Well, I do!
Back then, it was usually 16mm film. Consumer-level film and projectors were also available to produce family films. Over the years, improvements to the cameras and the film resulted in many different options that fall into three categories that qualify for film transfer:
- 8mm film, also called standard 8 or regular 8
- Super 8mm film, also called Super 8
- 16mm film
8mm film is half of a 16mm film, cut down the middle lengthwise. 8mm film became the standard size for the Hi8 family of videotape. I receive many calls about “Super 8” that is actually Hi8.
Working projectors for film are practically nonexistent, having worn out like all machines do, and there are no new projectors in production. Film is worthless without a projector, and it deteriorates every day as it sits in storage. Today, we find ourselves living at a time when there is an industry for digitizing film!
Frame-by-Frame Scanning, Key to A Good Transfer
For the best conversion from Film to Digital, scan every frame at high resolution before processing all frames into a digital video. This is called frame-by-frame scanning.
Because there are three different sizes, mentioned above, each size requires its own software and equipment, which results in three separate products:
Formats for Your Transfer
Several options, including mp4, QuickTime, and others, are available formats for your film transfer to digital. While the industry standard changes periodically, mp4 is the most accepted standard as of this writing, while QuickTime options (including ProRes) serve professional-level video needs.
Regardless of which form you choose, transferring your film delivers the benefits of backup, sharing and editing that were not available before digitizing the film.
Transfer Film to Digital: Get Started
- Call or text Jamey: 720 204-5464
- Set an appointment (every project receives my personal attention)
- Drop off your tapes (and records, cassettes, slides, or negatives, too)
- Pick up your new digitized video in a week or less.