Choose Film Scanning Process for 16mm and 35mm Film To DVD - 8mm Film To Video

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Some customer may be wondering just how much information is actually on film!! That's a good question. The following images are a simplification to illustrate some general points. They are not exact and will vary based on specific film stocks.

16mm Film
	Pro SD Scan This SD scan was performed with a SD professional motion picture film scanner. A 480 line SD scan will get about 1/4 of the available details on the film. You can see how blurry the Pro SD scan is compared to the Pro HD or 2K scan. In addition, you can see the red color shift. This is very common on 16mm and 35mm film. Lastly, you can see the surface defects on the film. Actually, The Pro HD shows it better since the SD scan is such a low resolution scan.
	Pro HD Scan This Pro HD scan was performed with a HD professional motion picture film scanner. Although an 1080 line HD scan is better, it only gets at most 50% of the details from the film. Compared to the Pro SD scan you can see it has more detail in the child's face and in the green leaves in the lower left hand corner. In addition, you can see the red color shift was mostly fixed.
	Pro 2K Scan This Pro 2K scan was performed with a professional 2K/4K Datacine machine. Look at the additional detail on the child's face and in the green leaves on the lower left hand corner compared to the Pro HD Scan. You can also see that the optional grain elimination and color correction made the image look sharper and overall much better.
	Pro 4K Scan This Pro 4K scan was performed with a professional 2K/4K Datacine machine. A 2K scan is sufficient for most 16mm out there. But, if you want the very best detail then we recommend the 4K scan. You can then go out to a 4K format like 4K-ProRes or 4K-DPX. This would allow you to create formats for your 4K/UHD TV.

35mm Film
	Pro HD Scan This HD scan was performed with a HD professional motion picture film scanner. A 1080 line HD scan will get about 1/4-1/3 of the available details on the film. You can see how much sharper the 2K and 4K scan are even on this low resolution online picture. In addition, you can see the blue color shift. This is very common on both 16mm and 35mm film.
	Pro 2K Scan This 2K scan was performed with a professional 2K/4K Datacine machine. Although a 2K scan is better, it only gets at most 50% of the details from the film. Compared to the HD scan you can see it has more detail in the face and his chest, etc. In addition, you can see the blue color shift was fixed.
	Pro 4K Scan This 4K scan was performed with a professional 2K/4K Datacine machine. To archive 35mm film a 4K scan is required (our 4K process). Even on this lower resolution online version, you can see additional details on his face over the 2K scan.