Film Transfers - FAQ

Very safe, because they are priceless! We treat your film just like any historical film archive. We regard your films as a visual historical account of your family and respect them as such. When your films arrive, your order is checked-in by an experienced staff member. Everything pertaining to your film transfer order is labeled and remains together at all times from arrival, through transfer, until it is carefully packaged and returned to you. We have never lost, misplaced or confused an order.

We give you 2 DVD's so that in the event that something happens to one of them, you will have a backup DVD that you can make more copies from. We like to say - "One to play, and one to put away". The one to play is a high quality Taiyo Yuden DVD-R, and the one to put away is a Delkin Gold Archive DVD, which is guaranteed against data loss for 100 years. Extra Taiyo Yuden DVD copies are available for $15.00 each, and extra Delkin Gold Archive DVD copies are available for $25.00 each. Click here for more information about our Delkin Gold Archive Quality DVD's.

There are a few ways to tell the difference. The easiest is by looking at the sprocket holes. If you have both formats, look at them together, side by side (either the film or the leader). Super 8mm film will have much smaller sprocket holes. The Super 8mm with sound film had a copper colored track running along one edge of the film. Remember this: Regular 8mm film came out first, followed by Super 8mm, then Super 8mm with sound. It is very common that only one format was shot as a different camera would have been required.

8mm and Super 8 film comes in three common reel sizes: The small reels, about 3" in diameter, hold 50 feet. Sometimes the box may say 25 feet, double roll. (See picture here) This box would have been the original box the film came in before being used. After shooting the film, and sending it away to be processed, the lab would cut the film down the middle lengthwise, and splice the two 25 foot pieces together to make 50 feet. The 5" reels hold 200 feet. The 7" reels hold 400 feet. On the 200 & 400 foot reels, there is a gauge on one of the spokes of the reel that will show you how much film is on the reel, in feet and meters. The charts here show common reel sizes. You can also try our film calculator here.

Yes. We can supply you the uncompressed raw footage in .avi format. We can burn the footage to as many DVD's as necessary for $14.95 each, or you can bring us a USB or Firewire external hard drive that we can copy your footage to. If we burn the files to DVD, you have to copy all the files from the DVD(s) to a folder on your computer's hard drive to work with them. The same thing is recommended when you use an external drive. External drives are just not fast enough to keep up with the demands put on your computer when editing video. Be sure you or someone else is able to do the editing. We are unable to offer any advice or help due to the differences in computer systems, and computer software.

There are several ways to achieve this. The easiest way is when the original film was clearly marked by someone. Unfortunately, this is not the case very often. Don't worry! The small reels usually came in yellow or orange boxes (the ones used to ship the film for processing). These boxes sometimes have a legible postmark date. You can use these dates to put the film in the proper order. If there is no postmark date, or it is illegible, you can look at the process before date marked on the box. If, after trying all these methods, you are unable to determine the order, we will capture the film in any order, and then you can visit us and view the reels while they are in our computer to determine the order. The time that we spend with you achieving this is charged at $75.00 per hour. Another option for you to determine the correct order is as follows: We would provide you with a DVD copy of the raw footage, with time code (Hours, Minutes & Seconds) showing on the screen. We also put black video between each reel. When you or someone else watches the DVD at home, you should be able to determine the correct order.

No. Our transfer machine has been specifically redesigned by eliminating the hot projector bulb that used to burn or melt your film when it stopped feeding properly. Also, the film transport system does not use any sprocket teeth that could damage the film. The film is fed through the machine by the use of a gentle "finger" that grasps each sprocket hole individually, which eliminates tearing and breakage.

Sometimes the sprocket holes are very worn, which can cause the film to run improperly, causing jittering and jumping. We do our best to remedy this using various mechanical and editing techniques, but any jumping or jittering of the picture in your final product is beyond our control.

The colors are sometimes missing or faded due to the age of the film, and especially how the reels were stored over the years. We can replace the missing colors by using our computer system, but it is a very time consuming process, and therefore can be quite costly.

Again, storage issues can cause this, but this problem is also attributed to how the film was shot in the first place. We remove any bright footage that is virtually not watchable, but we do not remove any of the footage if we are able to make out any details.

In most cases, the footage is dark because there was not enough light available when the film was shot. However, this problem can also be caused by the film being exposed to bright light before being processed, and by storage problems. In many cases, we are able to brighten up the dark areas to some degree, but brightening too much makes the picture grainy. This is a time consuming process, and can be costly.

Ghosting and shadows can be caused by various things, but the most common problem is that due to age, the emulsion (the dull side of the film) has separated slightly from the base, or shiny side. In addition, Real-Time transfers create a video that is interlaced, which can cause ghosting. You can avoid this situation by using our frame-to-frame scanning technique, which scans the image from the emulsion side of the film, instead of projecting through from the other side in our normal transfer technique. The frame-to-frame technique costs an additional 40%, however, so the method of choice is up to you.

Yes, background music is available. If we use our computer generated instrumental music, there is an additional charge of $20.00 added to the total cost of your transfer. If you bring us music on a CD or in some other format, we charge a fee for each track used. Click here for more information.

Yes, and the title at the beginning of the show is added at no charge. Additional titles are $9.00 each.

Yes, either photo prints and digital photos can be added. The price depends on how many, and whether we have to transfer your photos to a digital format. Contact us for more information and pricing.

Yes, slides can be added. The price depends on how many, and how we transfer your slides to a digital format that we can use in the video. Contact us for more information and pricing.

Yes, voices from a CD or tape can be added, or you can record your own voice here at our studio. If we have to transfer the voices from tapes, there is a charge associated with the transfer, depending on what we have to transfer from. If you are recording your own voice here, the time you spend in our studio is charged at $85.00 per hour. Contact us for more information and pricing.