The format that made cinema. Safety-base 35mm from educational, industrial, independent, and archival collections — scanned at true 4K with ProRes 4444 and DPX masters bundled in the Archival tier. Sprocketless transport, professional color, delivery specs that match what your post house expects.
35mm · Cinema standard4K · ProRes 4444 + DPX35mm is the professional format. Unlike 8mm or 16mm, families rarely had 35mm home movies. If you're scanning 35mm, you're working on something with documented value — archival, commercial, or legal. The per-foot rate reflects the specification required to do it right.
Filmmakers and production companies with legacy 35mm prints, negatives, or internegatives for re-release, streaming rights, or festival submission. ProRes 4444 and DPX delivery, color-managed, to your post house’s spec — both bundled at Archival tier.
Historical societies, university film archives, and museum collections holding 35mm newsreels, educational films, or corporate history. Grant-eligible digitization with FADGI documentation, chain of custody, and full archival metadata — all bundled in Archival, no separate FADGI surcharge.
Estates with 35mm footage of legal or historical value, production libraries being sold or licensed, and corporate archives with established asset documentation needs. Chain-of-custody and provenance documentation included at Archival tier.
Born as the Edison standard in 1892. Standardized globally by 1909. Still the gold standard against which every other motion-picture format is measured. 35mm holds up at 4K and beyond — which is why it's the first and only format in our lineup where full Archival tier resolution is consistently worth the investment.
35mm · Cinema standardAt 35mm wide — roughly four times the area of 16mm — the film carries enough image detail that scanning benefits from resolution well beyond 2K. For most preservation work we recommend the full 4K Archival tier, and DPX sequences are the standard delivery format for institutional and professional projects.
▸ See the base types section below for what we can and cannot currently scan.
Not every 35mm reel is the same. The film base — the physical material the emulsion is coated on — determines whether we can scan it safely in our facility. Here's a straight answer on what we handle and what we don't at this time.
1948 — Present · The overwhelming majority of 35mm in circulation
Virtually all 35mm made after 1952 is safety film — cellulose acetate or, from 1990 onward, polyester base. These are the standard stocks for educational, industrial, documentary, independent, and institutional 35mm collections. We scan them at every tier up through 4K DPX.
Pre-1952 · Rare but real · flammable base
Cellulose nitrate, used on 35mm from the 1890s through 1952, is chemically unstable and highly flammable. It requires specialized hazmat-rated facilities, fire suppression, ventilation systems, and insurance we don’t currently carry. We do not scan nitrate film at this time.
If your collection includes pre-1952 35mm, there's a reasonable chance some of it is nitrate. Here's how to identify it, why it matters, and what to do next.
Cellulose nitrate film dominated 35mm production from the beginning of cinema through the early 1950s. Hollywood prints, newsreels, early television broadcasts, educational films — much of what was shot on 35mm before 1952 is potentially nitrate. It’s not just an old-movie concern. Plenty of it is still sitting in institutional vaults and private collections today.
Nitrate is flammable in a way modern film is not: it continues to burn even submerged in water, can auto-ignite if stored above 106°F, and releases toxic gases as it decomposes. Shipping nitrate through FedEx or UPS also has hazmat restrictions most senders aren’t aware of.
We’ll update this page when we expand to include nitrate handling. In the meantime, if you reach out about a potentially-nitrate collection, we’ll help you identify it and point you toward the right facility.
Acetate-base 35mm from the 1950s through the 1980s is vulnerable to the same failure modes as 16mm from the same era. Sprocketless transport is what lets us scan what conversion services reject.
Cellulose acetate from the 1950s — 80s is the most vulnerable stock. The vinegar smell — acetic acid from base decomposition — is the first warning. Advanced cases cause severe shrinkage, curling, and channeling. Sprocketless transport scans it safely until the film is genuinely too brittle to run.
Scanned until unrunnableEastman Color Negative and Eastman Color Print from the 1950s — 70s are notoriously unstable — cyan and yellow dyes fade first, leaving the characteristic magenta cast on faded cinema prints. Full color-managed grading at the Archival tier recovers substantially more than automated correction can.
Scene-by-scene recoveryExhibition prints carry evidence of every run through a projector — torn perforations, cracked splices, emulsion wear, and edge damage. We repair failed splices by hand at intake. Worn perforations don’t affect sprocketless transport at all.
Hand-repaired at intakeProfessional and institutional projects don't need 'an MP4 of the movie' — they need files that plug into a specific post workflow, archive standard, or delivery spec. Here's what 35mm scans actually deliver, codec by codec.
| Preservation — Resolution | 2048 × 1556 (2K full aperture) |
|---|---|
| Preservation — Master codec | ProRes 422 HQ · 10-bit 4:2:2 |
| Preservation — Access copy | H.264 MP4 |
| Preservation — Color space | Rec. 709, scene-by-scene graded |
| Archival — Resolution | 4096 × 3112 full aperture · 3840 × 2160 UHD · 6K+ on request |
| Archival — Master format | DPX (per-frame, 10-bit log) or 16-bit TIFF sequences |
| Archival — Alt master | ProRes 4444 XQ · 12-bit 4:4:4:4 |
| Archival — Color space | Log C or RAW, color-managed pipeline |
| Archival — Access copies | ProRes 422 HQ + H.264 |
| Audio (sound film) | Uncompressed 48 kHz / 24-bit PCM |
| FADGI 4-star (on request) | +$150 · compliance certificate + metadata |
| LTO archival storage | Per-TB quote · Archival tier only |
For 35mm specifically, the Archival tier is usually the right choice — the format holds up at 4K, DPX is the established archival spec, and institutional projects typically require FADGI 4-star compliance for grant funding.
DPX — the Library of Congress, Academy Film Archive, and SMPTE-standard master format. Per-frame uncompressed images that match scanner RAW output exactly.
ProRes 4444 XQ — 12-bit 4:4:4:4 with alpha channel. The color-critical working master for high-end grading, VFX, and restoration pipelines.
ProRes 422 HQ — edit-room standard. Broadcast-ready, cuts natively in any NLE without proxies, sufficient for re-releases and streaming deliveries.
We also deliver EXR, Cineon, uncompressed QuickTime, IMF packages, and specific SMPTE spec outputs on request. Send us your deliverable spec — if it’s a standard format, we match it.
The Preservation tier handles most family and amateur-collection work on other formats, but for 35mm specifically — because the format holds 4K detail and most projects have institutional or professional requirements — we recommend Archival as the default tier. Preservation remains available when full DPX output isn't needed.
For: Viewing-only digitization of safety 35mm when archival output isn't required. Rare use case for 35mm.
For: Independent and small-production rescans, documentary re-releases, educational film collections where 2K is sufficient.
For: Institutional archives, grant-funded projects, professional restoration, legal documentation. The default tier for 35mm.
Sound capture adds $0.18/ft flat across all tiers (optical or magnetic). 35mm Archival with sound is $2.53/ft. Damaged or distressed film is quoted after inspection rather than via automatic surcharges. Film handling & prep: $50 base + $6/reel. Order minimum: $150.
Estimated totals covering scanning, sound capture if applicable, handling, vault (free year one), and at-cost shipping both ways. Bulk discount activates above 2,000 ft on a single order. Final total locks at intake.
Independent 35mm short, silent, from an indie filmmaker's archive. Full Archival tier with 4K, ProRes 4444, and DPX delivery — all bundled.
Indie 35mm at full Archival spec.
Documentary feature 35mm with optical sound, Archival tier. Above 2,000 ft, bulk discount activates on the overage footage (15% off scanning).
Documentary feature with bulk discount applied.
Historical society 35mm newsreel collection. 4K, FADGI documentation, ProRes 4444 + DPX all included — no separate FADGI surcharge. Bulk discount on 6,000 ft of overage.
Institutional scale — custom-quoted, line-item negotiated.
Institutional orders (2,000+ ft of film) get custom quotes with line-item negotiation. See the Institutional page for RFP details.
Recent 35mm work from the lab — educational, documentary, and institutional projects. All at 4K DPX unless otherwise noted.
The questions that come up most often about 35mm scanning — including nitrate scope, FADGI, and DPX delivery.
Same lab, same standard, same sprocketless transport across every format we handle.
Documentary, educational, and home-movie 16mm. Optical and magnetic sound, 2K — 4K output.
Explore 16mm
Home-movie formats, 1932–present. Smaller gauge, lower per-foot rate, same sprocketless transport.
Explore consumer film
FADGI compliance, chain of custody, grant-ready documentation, RFP response for archives and libraries.
For institutionsSend us a project brief — tier, output spec, timeline, any institutional or delivery requirements. We respond within one business day with a structured quote.