FPL guides · field writing on film preservation
Technical accuracy without the jargon wall. Answers to the questions customers actually ask — from “what format is this?” through vinegar syndrome, estate collections, grant applications, and the difference between an archival scan and a conversion.
01 / Featured
If you’re new to thinking about your film, this is the most useful place to begin. The visual format guide answers the single question we hear more than any other: “what do I have?”
A complete, measurable guide to telling Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm apart — plus silent vs sound, and what to do if you still can't tell. No equipment required beyond a ruler.
02 / Pathways
Different visitors arrive with different questions. Pick the path that matches where you are — format identification, crisis response, or evaluation.
Posts that help you figure out whether you have Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, VHS, MiniDV, or something else. Visual guides with real photos.
Category label: Format Guides
Vinegar syndrome, color fade, brittle splices, mold, sticky shed on tapes. What's happening, whether it's recoverable, and what to do next.
Category label: Deterioration & Damage
What separates real preservation scanning from budget services. Output formats, resolution, what 'archival-grade' actually means in practice.
Category label: Archival & Technical
03 / Browse
Filter by category and audience. Posts marked “upcoming” are in our publishing queue — subscribe below to get notified when new ones go live.
4K is four times the pixels of 2K. The honest answer to whether you need it for your film depends on the original format, what you plan to do with the file, and how much storage you want to manage. A practical breakdown for consumer and professional buyers.
Two formats. Same width. Sold side by side at the same drugstore for fifteen years. A measurable, photo-friendly guide to telling Standard 8mm and Super 8 apart in under a minute — plus what each format means for digitization.
There is no universal best film digitization service — the right service is the one that matches what you have and what you want from it. A category-by-category guide to the actual options, with honest framing about who each one fits and full disclosure that this guide is published by one of them.
You've inherited a box of film reels and you don't know what to do next. A practical, unhurried guide to sorting, preserving, and handling home movies left behind by a parent or grandparent — without pressure, and without getting overwhelmed.
DIY film digitization at the kitchen table costs less and gives you total control. A professional scan costs more and produces a better file. The honest answer to which is right depends on what you have, what you can risk, and what you want the file to do for you long-term.
The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative sets the technical specifications grant-funded, federal, and institutional film digitization projects are measured against. A practical guide to what FADGI is, what 'FADGI-compliant' actually means at each star level, and how to evaluate a vendor against the spec.
Searching for a local film digitization service is reasonable, but local doesn't always mean qualified. A practical guide to evaluating local labs versus national mail-in services, with honest framing about which fits which job.
A practical reference chart for matching reel diameter to footage and runtime, across Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm. Useful for estimating an order before you ship, or just understanding what you have.
A practical guide to the three output formats used in film digitization — H.264 for access, ProRes for editorial work, and DPX for archival masters. What each one is, when each is right, and what to ask for at the order stage.
Frame-by-frame scanning is the mechanical reality behind real film digitization. Each frame is paused, captured, and advanced — not played at speed. A plain-language explanation of how it works, why it produces better files than projector-based methods, and what to look for in a vendor.
Film lasts as long as its storage allows it to. A realistic guide to film lifespan across Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm — what affects the timeline, what 50, 80, and 100-year storage actually look like, and what your film's own age really means.
Storage conditions are the single biggest factor in how long your film survives. A practical guide to temperature, humidity, container choice, and the small free changes that extend useful film life by decades — written for households, not institutional vaults.
iMemories digitizes everything in your house — film, tape, photos, audio — at a flat per-item rate. An archival film scanning lab does one thing carefully and prices by the foot. Different services for different problems, with practical guidance on when to use each.
Legacybox sells convenience. A professional scanning lab sells preservation. They're different services solving different problems — not better-and-worse versions of the same product. A practical breakdown of what each one delivers and which one fits which job.
The same word — digitization — covers two different processes that produce very different files. A side-by-side guide to what a projector transfer is, what a frame-by-frame film scanner is, and why the visible difference shows up the moment you compare files from each.
Most film digitization services answer marketing questions well. Fewer answer the technical ones honestly. A practical checklist of ten questions to ask any vendor — including ours — before sending in your reels.
Sprocketless transport holds film by its edges instead of pulling it through a gate by the perforations. The engineering shift is what makes safe scanning of brittle, shrunken, and vinegar-syndrome film possible. A plain-language explanation for archivists, collection managers, and anyone with damaged film to digitize.
Both are film. Both have sprocket holes. They're not interchangeable, and they don't look alike once you measure them. A side-by-side guide to telling Super 8 from 16mm in under a minute, plus what each format means for reel sizes, image quality, and digitization.
Vinegar syndrome has a smell that's both diagnostic and unmistakable — sharp, acidic, like white vinegar from the kitchen. A short guide to recognizing it, what it tells you about the reel, and what to do next.
You found film reels but you don't have a projector — and you probably shouldn't run one even if you did. Practical options for watching what's on the reels without putting the originals at risk, plus the case for digitizing first and watching second.
The word digitization covers two very different processes — frame-by-frame archival scanning and projector-based standard transfer. A side-by-side guide to telling them apart, with the resolution, codec, and price differences you need before you order.
A plain-language guide to vinegar syndrome, color fade, brittleness, and mold in Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm film — how storage conditions accelerate or slow each one, and how long you realistically have.
A stage-by-stage guide to identifying vinegar syndrome on Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm acetate film. The chemistry, the five stages, what's recoverable at each, and the four-step home assessment that takes under ten minutes per reel.
A complete, measurable guide to telling Super 8, 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm apart — plus silent vs sound, and what to do if you still can't tell. No equipment required beyond a ruler.
The most-searched comparison question in the home-movie market, answered with real photos and a definitive identification method.
Completes the format comparison triptych. How to tell 16mm home movies from 8mm, and why it matters for digitization.
By reel size and format. The practical answer to the first question everyone has before ordering: how much footage do I actually have?
One of the most-searched questions in our space. Film lifespan by stock type, storage conditions, and realistic recovery windows.
The core technical difference between projector-based transfer services and archival scanning. In plain language, with diagrams.
For professionals. When to request ProRes 422 HQ vs 4444 vs DPX, and why the answer depends on your post-production workflow.
Estates often include film reels no one has played in decades. What to save, what’s urgent, and how to approach a collection you didn’t create.
Evergreen reference for anyone holding onto film after digitization, or anyone inheriting film they can’t afford to digitize immediately.
Magnetic tape deterioration timeline, sticky shed syndrome, and the realistic window for getting VHS digitized before the signal is gone.
The federal standard that unlocks grant-funded institutional work. What it requires, what it doesn’t, and how FPL delivers it in practice.
The technical detail that separates archival scanning from projector-based transfer services. Why it matters especially for damaged film.
We publish a few thoughtful pieces each month — vinegar syndrome, estate triage, archival vs conversion are all in active drafting. No promotional emails, no algorithm games. Just the writing when it lands.
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