Premier Service is Currently Available.

See our Large Order Discounts forNegatives

We Scan Your Negatives to Digital Images

We will digitize the negatives you send to us (all formats, all sizes, all types), and convert them to positive images if you wish (or you can do that yourself if you have the software). Please note that we also scan Disc Film (many scanning services won't!). In fact, we specialize in Disc film, as explained below. Our Price for scanning negatives starts at $0.45/frame, depending on the type of service you select (see below). You can even try us outfree of charge! We scan 35mm negatives, we scan 110 film negatives, we scan all negative formats and sizes.

Concierge Service (Free of charge): We provide (free) extra services that others don't. For example, we will customize your directory structures if you wish. If your negatives from a roll of film are grouped together, we will digitize them in the original sequence. Our guiding principle is to provide personalized service, at a fair price.

How to Order: To request conversion services, just fill out the Scanning Request Form.

Disc Film Negatives:

We use a proprietary process, along with custom-built equipment, to digitize Disc Film negatives (also known as disk film negatives). Using this special process, we are able to convert a disc film image to a digital image that is 4700 pixels wide - that is the equivalent of a scanner working at 11,000 dpi. That capability, combined with our low cost (just $13.00/disc (direct negative image), versus up to $45/disc with other services) makes us the logical place to send your disc films for conversion. For more information, see our dedicatedDisc Film Scanning page

When we scan your disc film negatives, we do not damage or change the disc in any way. Other labs will modify the disc to fit their equipment - for example, by removing the hub. We will process your disc and return it to you in its original condition. If your Discs have been modified by removing the center hub, there is an additional $2.00/Disc charge to cover the increased difficulty of imaging the frames.

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APS Film Negatives:

We digitize APS film too. If you have APS film in the APS cartridges, we can scan APS film and convert your APS films to digital images. Our charges for this film are just $0.45 per frame (other services will charge you over $0.90/frame for this film, if they will take it at all!). We will not cut or otherwise modify your APS films in any way. Once we have digitized your APS film images, we will return you film to you intact, in the cartridge. Now you can finally see your APS photos as digital images, and share them with other people too! For more detailed information, please visit our APS Film Scanning Page.

In addition to providing your image files on a flash drive or DVD, for a small additional charge ($0.09/image + disc cost) we can assemble your pictures into a HDTV Video Slide Show. We can then put that slide show on a DVD  that you can play in your DVD player so you can enjoy your pictures on your TV set, as well as your computer. If you choose this option, the data files (JPEG image files) require a separate disc - or you can have them put on a flash drive.

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Three Tiers of Service Available:

We offer three different categories of service for photographic negatives ("Digital Negatives", "Digital Positives", and "Premier Service"), allowing you to tailor your order to your needs and budget:

Digital Negative Service:

The first is our "Digital Negative" Service. This service provides you with digital copies of your negatives with the frame border visible, without any further processing; the images you receive are still negatives.

This category is our lowest cost imaging service - you can receive digital negatives for $0.45/image. This service is ideally suited for customers who simply want to preserve and protect their collection of negatives at the lowest possible cost for the time being.

It is also ideal for those who want to do their own post-processing and image improvement. We provide a download link to a free software package that will enable you to do all of the same post-processing of your images that we do with our higher-priced services.

Scan Now, Upgrade Later:

The best part is that you also have the option at any time to have us "develop" the negative images (reverse them to normal color) after your order is processed at a cost of just $0.04/image ($5.00 minimum order size). We will hold your images on our system for at least five years.

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Digital Positive Service:

Our second category of service is our "Digital Positive" service. This service takes the negative images and processes them to reverse the color to a normal positive image, and to perform an initial film balancing. WIth this service, you also receive copies of the Digital Negative images in your digital files.

No further processing is done (no dust and scratch removal, no trimming - the frame borders are still visible, no exposure adjustments), and images remain in the landscape orientation (portrait-style images are not rotated to the vertical position). This service is available for $0.49/image (total) for 35mm and other similar formats.

With the "Digital Positive" Service, all rectangular images will be in the landscape orientation (with the long axis horizontal). You can easily rotate the images that were taken with the camera in the vertical orientation using the Windows Photo Viewer. Or, if you prefer, we can do that for you for a small additional charge of $0.03/image, based on the total number of images in your job (because we have to review every image).

Premier Service:

The final level of service is our "Premier Service". This is our "full service" category. All images will be corrected for dust and scratches, color corrected for film-base color shifts, and put in the proper orientation in the JPEG image file. This service includes the two sets of preliminary image files (Digital Negative & Digital Positive)

What is Premier Service?

Premier Service takes the "Image Only" image and crops out the border, leaving just the image itself. It also includes making adjustments to each image to improve the quality as much as practical. This is a fully manual operation, and includes adjustments for color shifts and color fading, under- or over-exposure, removal of dust and fiber shadows, etc. Here are some comparisons of the two versions:

If you have had negatives processed using one of our other two services (Digital Negatives or Positives) you can always come back and have your images post-processed up to the Premier Service level. If you have us process the entire batch of images that we originally digitized, the cost per image is the difference between the two services. If you want us to process selected images, you can send us a list of the image names you wish to upgrade. For that service, the cost is $0.70/image (from Digital Negatives), or $0.65/image from digital Positive images. In both cases, there is a $10.00 minimum order size.

The obvious question at this point is: "Why is it more expensive to have selected images edited after paying for the 'Digital Negative or Positive' scans?" The answer is that the pricing of our "Premier Service" is based on the fact that in a batch of images, some will require little to no editing at all, some will require just a few touch-ups, and some will require more detailed attention, so the amount we charge represents an average cost.

When selected images are sent in after scanning for further processing, we know that all of the images will require more work, and more time, so we have to charge more for processing those images.

If you prefer to have your image files in RAW or TIFF formats rather than JPEG, these are both available at a small additional charge (seePrice List).

Your processed files will be stored on the storage medium of your choice: CD-ROM, DVD, BluRay, Thumb Drive (Flash Drive), M-Disc, or, for large orders, an external hard drive. You can indicate your choice of media when you fill out the Order Form/Packing List that you will receive from us when we are ready to receive your order. You can also elect to receive multiple copies of your files, if you wish.

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Our Process

Actually, we don't scan your negatives. Instead, we start by taking the film strips and putting them in the correct sequence according to the frame numbers on the film. Then we take each negative, clean it with a special anti-static, lint-free photographic cleaning cloth to remove most of the dust and debris, and place it on an LED light-box and actually photograph it full-frame with a macro-photography setup. This avoids theartifactsthat can be introduced by a scanner, and provides a higher resolution than almost any scanner. Essentially, it is like going back in time and re-shooting your negatives with a modern digital camera.

If you have selected our Premier Service, the images are then post-processed individually to rotate the vertically oriented images, and remove any remaining dust, fibers, and scratches fibers that show up in the image. In the case of older negatives where the color has faded, we are sometimes able to slightly improve the color saturation and intensity (but we make no guarantees). We also try, where possible, to improve exposure levels for images that are either under- or over-exposed. The changes, while not typically dramatic, are usually a noticeable improvement.

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Other File Formats

In addition to JPEG files, we can also provide TIFF and RAW image file formats. Because these files are much larger than JPEG (between 4-6x) the processing time for image post-processing is much longer. As a result, we charge an additional $0.10 - $0.20/image for those file formats, depending on the Service Category (see below, orPrice List).

As a way of introducing you to our Service, we invite you to try our Negative Scanning Service for FREE. We will scan up to eight negatives absolutely free of charge. The resulting jpeg images will be sent to you via Dropbox (you will receive images representing all three categories of Service), and your negatives will be sent back to you in a return envelope that you will provide to us.

To get your free scans, just fill out the Free Scan Request Form. We will reply with an email providing you with instructions on how to send us your negatives, along with a mailing label that you will need to use for your envelope. Please, do not send us any materials without receiving this instructive email.

Of course, if you do not have any negatives you would like to submit for free scans, you could choose to send us up to sixslides,or a couple ofphotographs,which have quantity limits (for free scans) that depend on the size of the photographs.

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Large Orders:

Large orders will be sectioned into file sub-directories of about 60 - 70 images, and each directory will include one or more Index images that contains a thumbnail image of each picture, together with its file name. That way you can quickly search for a particular image, or easily review all of the images in the file. Of course, we will organize the images into specific categories of your choosing if you provide the necessary instructions.

Our prices for scanning negatives are as follows:

Scanning Negatives

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Large Order Discounts for Image Only Stage (Negatives)