Access
Photo tier: Standard
1 file per item
Best for: Watching and sharing
Video deliverables
H.264 MP4
Photo deliverables
JPEG (sRGB)
- Film resolution
- 2K (2048 × ~1556)
- Photo resolution
- 1200 DPI
- Bit depth
- 8-bit 4:2:0
- Delivery
- Vault · optional drive
01 / What you get, by tier
Three tiers, three deliverable bundles.
Pick the one that matches what you'll do with the files. Across film, video, and photo, each tier delivers the same bundle — with a few footnotes for specialty formats.
Preservation
2 files per item
Best for: Editing, grading, long-term keep
Video deliverables
ProRes 422 HQH.264 MP4
Photo deliverables
TIFF 16-bitJPEG
- Film resolution
- 2K (2048 × ~1556)
- Photo resolution
- 2400 DPI
- Bit depth
- 10-bit 4:2:2
- Delivery
- Vault · optional drive
Archival
3 files per item
Best for: Restoration, FADGI, institutional
Video deliverables
ProRes 4444DPX seq.H.264 MP4
VHS & video: FFV1 / MKV available on request
Photo deliverables
Photos use the Preservation bundle — no separate Archival tier
- Film resolution
- 4K (4096 × ~3112)
- Photo resolution
- —
- Bit depth
- 12-bit 4:4:4 / 16-bit RGB
- Delivery
- Vault + drive or LTO recommended
For the full tier breakdown with rates and bundled capabilities, see the pricing page. For details on what post-processing is applied at each tier, see the post-processing page.
Where your files live
A year of Vault, on us.
Every format on this page lands in your private Vault by default — free for the first year on every order. Streamable, downloadable, sharable.
Learn about the Vault- Streams H.264 in any browserWatch on TV, phone, or laptop. No download or special player required.
- Holds every deliverableProRes, DPX, TIFF, JPEG — re-download anytime, in any combination.
- Share with family or collaboratorsPer-person access, view-only or download-enabled. No extra cost.
- Continues after year oneSmall annual fee to keep the Vault, or take everything to local storage.
02 / Pick by intent
Pick the right format for what you’ll actually do.
Most customers don't need to pick at all — they take what comes with their tier and use it. If you want to think about it, here's every format grouped by the use cases it's built for.
Film & video formats
H.264 MP4
Every tier- Watch on TV, phone, or laptop
- Share with family via email or link
- Upload to YouTube or social media
The universal playback format. Streams from the Vault by default. Smallest files, maximum compatibility.
Format detailsProRes 422 HQ
Preservation- Edit in Final Cut, Premiere, or Resolve
- Preserve a video master for future projects
Editing-friendly intra-frame format. Clean cuts, grading-ready. ProRes 4444 at Archival for the highest fidelity.
Format detailsDPX sequence
Archival- Submit film for FADGI-compliant archival
- Restore damaged film frame by frame
Frame-by-frame archival master required by federal preservation guidelines. Each frame is a discrete file with full color fidelity.
Format detailsFFV1 / MKV
Archival · on request- Long-term lossless tape preservation with smaller files
Lossless compression — same image integrity as DPX at roughly half the size. Open-source, aligned with institutional video preservation.
Format detailsPhoto formats
JPEG
Every tier- Email or text photos to family
- Print at the drugstore or online lab
- Post online or share digitally
The universal photo format. Compressed, compatible, ready to share. Bundled at Standard tier and alongside TIFF at Preservation.
Format detailsTIFF 16-bit
Preservation- Reprint a photo at larger-than-original size
- Restore or color-correct old photos
Uncompressed photo master at 2400 DPI. Enough resolution to reprint at 2× or 3× the original without quality loss.
Format detailsOr just take what your tier delivers and use it. The full bundle goes on the drive (if you order one) or downloads from the Vault — pick a tier, ship your media, the right files arrive.
03 / Video formats deep-dive
H.264 vs ProRes vs DPX vs FFV1: five video formats, explained.
Every film or videotape scan produces at least one video file. Depending on your tier, you receive one, two, or three of these formats. Here's what each is, what it's for, and how big the files get.
At-a-glance comparisonAt-a-glance: 300 ft Super 8 reel, ~16 minutes runtime
Every tier
H.264
MP4 container · the universal viewable format
Best forWatching, sharing
H.264 is the codec that powers YouTube, Netflix, iPhone video, and pretty much every video file you've ever played on a consumer device. It's highly compressed, highly compatible, and purpose-built for playback rather than editing. At FPL, it's included at every tier as the “watch this anywhere” deliverable.
H.264 achieves small file sizes by compressing heavily across frames — most frames aren't actually stored as full images; they're stored as “what changed since the last frame.” This makes H.264 a terrible format for editing (cuts land in strange places, color grading falls apart) and a perfect format for streaming, casting to TV, sharing with family, or just watching.
When to reach for H.264: anything that ends in “watching” — TV playback, phone streaming, sharing a link with a relative, uploading to YouTube, embedding in a web page, casting to a living room setup. It’s what the Vault streams by default.
- Container
- MP4
- Bit depth
- 8-bit 4:2:0
- Typical bitrate
- 10–15 Mbps
- Size (300 ft S8)
- ~1.5 GB
Preservation +
ProRes 422 HQ
MOV container · the editing-friendly master
Best forEditing, grading
ProRes is Apple's professional video codec, used as the default intermediate format across the film and TV industry. ProRes 422 HQ is the version most commonly bundled with professional film scans — high-enough quality to re-grade and edit from, but meaningfully smaller than fully uncompressed formats.
Unlike H.264, ProRes is intra-frame — every frame is stored as its own complete image rather than as a delta from nearby frames. This means cuts land precisely, color grading doesn’t fall apart, and the footage holds up through multiple rounds of editing and re-export. It also means the files are much larger than H.264.
When to reach for ProRes 422 HQ: you want to edit, color-grade, or otherwise work with the footage in Final Cut, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or any professional video tool. Also: anyone who wants a higher-quality master to preserve alongside the H.264 viewing copy, even if they don’t plan to edit soon.
- Container
- MOV
- Bit depth
- 10-bit 4:2:2
- Typical bitrate
- ~220 Mbps (2K)
- Size (300 ft S8)
- ~10 GB
Archival
ProRes 4444
MOV container · the full-fidelity master
Best forArchival master
ProRes 4444 (the “4s” are a mnemonic: 4:4:4 chroma, 4 alpha channels) is ProRes turned up to maximum. Significantly more color information than 422 HQ, alpha channel support, and bit depth high enough for reference-grade color work. This is what broadcast, archival, and restoration projects use as a master format.
Practically, ProRes 4444 matters most when (a) you’ve ordered 4K Archival-tier scanning and want to preserve every bit of the color information the scan captured, or (b) you’re delivering footage to a professional post-production pipeline that expects 4444 input. For most family film, ProRes 422 HQ is a better match — the extra fidelity of 4444 doesn’t show itself on consumer displays.
- Container
- MOV
- Bit depth
- 12-bit 4:4:4:4
- Typical bitrate
- ~500 Mbps (2K)
- Size (300 ft S8)
- ~18 GB
Archival
DPX sequence
Digital Picture Exchange · frame-by-frame archival
Best forInstitutional, FADGI
DPX is the file format used by film restoration professionals, major motion picture archives, and FADGI-compliant institutional projects. Unlike video codecs that package all frames into a single container file, DPX is a sequence of individual image files — one file per frame. A 2-minute reel becomes thousands of DPX files, typically delivered as a folder or on a drive.
The advantage of sequence-based delivery is that each frame is independent. A frame can be color-corrected, repaired, or replaced without touching any other frame. DPX files store uncompressed 10-bit logarithmic image data — the full dynamic range captured by the scanner, preserved for future work. This is why DPX is the archival master format of choice for institutions.
The disadvantage is size. DPX sequences are the largest format we deliver by an order of magnitude. A single minute of 4K DPX can run 15–25 GB. Only order DPX if you need it — institutional project, FADGI compliance, or active restoration work.
- Container
- Sequence (folder)
- Bit depth
- 10-bit log RGB
- Compression
- None (uncompressed)
- Size (300 ft S8)
- ~65 GB
Archival · on request
FFV1 / MKV
Lossless open-source archival format
Best forLong-term archival
FFV1 is a lossless video codec — it compresses without discarding any image information, so the decoded output is bit-identical to the original source. Packaged in an MKV container (the Matroska multimedia container), it's the format most aligned with the open-source preservation world: used by the Library of Congress, Austrian National Film Institute, and a growing number of institutional archives as the long-term preservation format.
Compared to DPX, FFV1/MKV achieves meaningful compression (roughly 40–60% smaller than uncompressed) without quality loss. It also packages everything in a single container rather than a sequence of files — easier to store, easier to move, same archival integrity. The tradeoff is workflow: some professional tools don’t support FFV1 natively the way they support ProRes and DPX.
Available on request for Archival-tier projects, typically when an institution has specified FFV1 as their preservation target, or when a customer wants lossless preservation without the file sizes of DPX. Not the default — mention it in your project notes if you want it.
- Container
- MKV
- Bit depth
- 10-bit or 16-bit
- Compression
- Lossless
- Size (300 ft S8)
- ~30 GB
04 / Photo formats deep-dive
JPEG vs TIFF: two photo formats, when to use each.
Photo scans are simpler than video — really just two formats worth considering. The choice comes down to whether you want the file small and shareable, or large and archivally accurate.
At-a-glance comparisonAt-a-glance: 4×6 print at scan resolution
Every photo tier
JPEG
The universal photo format
Best forSharing, viewing
JPEG is to photos what H.264 is to video — compressed, compatible, ready to share, and good enough for any consumer use. JPEG achieves small file sizes by throwing away visual information that the human eye doesn't easily notice. The tradeoff is that each time a JPEG is re-saved, a tiny bit more quality is lost. For a file you're never going to re-edit, this doesn't matter.
At FPL, Standard-tier photo scans are delivered as JPEG at high quality (minimal compression). Preservation-tier scans also include JPEG alongside TIFF, because even when you have a high-quality TIFF master, you still want a JPEG copy for emailing to relatives, printing at a drugstore, or posting online.
- Container
- JPEG
- Color space
- sRGB
- Bit depth
- 8-bit
- Size (4×6 @ 1200)
- ~3–5 MB
Preservation
TIFF
Uncompressed master for reprinting and editing
Best forReprinting, restoration
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the standard uncompressed master format for professional photography and archival work. No compression artifacts, full color fidelity, embedded EXIF metadata, and enough quality headroom to reprint at larger sizes than the original or edit the image without quality degradation.
Preservation-tier photo scans deliver TIFF alongside JPEG. You keep the TIFF for reprinting, restoration work, and anything where image quality matters. You use the JPEG for everyday sharing. Most people never touch the TIFF files — but having them means you can come back in five or fifteen years and still have a master-quality copy to work from.
- Container
- TIFF
- Color space
- Adobe RGB
- Bit depth
- 16-bit
- Size (4×6 @ 2400)
- ~130 MB
05 / Resolution
2K vs 4K: what the numbers mean, and when bigger actually helps.
The resolution of your scan determines how much detail you can see, how far you can zoom in, and how large you can display or reprint the image. Higher numbers aren't automatically better — they interact with the source material in ways that matter.
What “2K” and “4K” actually are
2K means 2,048 pixels across the horizontal axis. The vertical pixel count depends on the aspect ratio — typically ~1,556 pixels for a classic 4:3 film frame. That’s about 3.2 megapixels per frame.
4K means 4,096 pixels across the horizontal axis — double 2K in each dimension, which is four times the total pixel count (12.7 megapixels per frame). A 4K scan is larger, more detailed, and substantially bigger in file size than the same scan at 2K.
Why film resolution isn’t infinite
The actual detail captured on film depends on the film format and stock. Super 8’s native optical resolution is roughly equivalent to 2K — scanning it at 4K captures the noise and grain more accurately but doesn’t meaningfully add image detail that wasn’t there. 16mm native detail is closer to 2K–4K. 35mm native detail approaches 4K–8K, which is why 35mm is the only film format where 4K scanning adds clearly visible image information.
06 / Bit depth & color
8-bit, 10-bit, 16-bit — why the bigger number matters for some projects.
Bit depth describes how many distinct shades of each color the file can represent. More bits means more subtle gradations between colors, which matters when you're going to color-grade the footage or when you need to represent very dark or very bright areas with real tonal detail.
The short version
8-bit can represent 256 shades per channel — fine for final display, where your eye can’t distinguish more anyway. Used in H.264 and JPEG. Get noticeable banding in gradients (skies, shadows) after any significant color adjustment.
10-bit represents 1,024 shades per channel — four times the tonal resolution. Used in ProRes 422 HQ and typical professional delivery. No banding in normal grades; smooth gradients even after correction.
12-bit / 16-bit represents 4,096 / 65,536 shades per channel — enough dynamic range headroom for aggressive color work. Used in ProRes 4444 (12-bit) and TIFF/DPX masters (16-bit). Overkill for consumer use; essential for archival and institutional work.
Chroma subsampling (the “4:2:2” numbers)
When you see notation like 4:2:0 (H.264), 4:2:2 (ProRes 422), or 4:4:4 (ProRes 4444 and DPX), that’s chroma subsampling — how much color information is stored per pixel relative to brightness information. 4:4:4 stores full color per pixel; 4:2:0 stores only a quarter.
In practice, this is most noticeable in two situations: strong saturated colors at sharp edges (where 4:2:0 shows soft color bleeding), and any project with chroma-key or extensive color work (where 4:2:0 falls apart under manipulation). For straight viewing on consumer screens, 4:2:0 is fine — which is why H.264 uses it.
When it matters
Bit depth and chroma subsampling mostly matter if you’re going to edit or grade the footage. For “watching only” use cases, H.264’s 8-bit 4:2:0 is perfectly adequate. For “editing, grading, or future-proofing” use cases, ProRes 422 HQ’s 10-bit 4:2:2 is the minimum you want. For archival masters, Archival tier’s 12-bit 4:4:4 or 16-bit RGB is the right call.
07 / Container vs codec
Why a file named .mp4 isn’t the same as one named .mov.
The file extension tells you the container format. What's actually inside — the codec — is a separate question. This distinction confuses a lot of people, including many professionals. Here's the short version.
Codec
The codec is the actual video compression and encoding. H.264, ProRes, DPX, FFV1 are all codecs. The codec determines file size, image quality, and how hard the file is to play back. When someone says “this is H.264 footage,” they’re talking about the codec.
Container
The container is the file wrapper that holds the video, audio, and metadata together. MP4, MOV, MKV are all containers. A single container can hold different codecs — an .mp4 file can contain H.264, H.265, or other codecs; an .mov file usually contains ProRes or DNxHR; an .mkv file can contain almost anything.
Practical examples
your_reel.mp4 — MP4 container + H.264 codec (the universal combination; works everywhere)
your_reel.mov — MOV container + ProRes 422 HQ codec (professional editing format; works in Final Cut, Premiere, Resolve, etc.)
your_reel.mkv — MKV container + FFV1 codec (open-source archival format; may need VLC or similar to play)
your_reel/ (folder of .dpx) — no container; frames stored as individual DPX files (archival / restoration workflow)
08 / Common questions
Formats, FAQ.
The questions that come up most often about codecs, resolution, bit depth, and which deliverables fit which projects.
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