Reliable 8 mm / super 8 film digitizing in New York City?

April 19, 2019 2:13 AM

I've got some irreplaceable family films from the 1960's and 1970's that I'd like to transfer to high-quality digital files -- or at least as high quality as one can reasonably get out of the 8 mm, Super 8, and Super 8 Ektasound formats. Looking for a reliable film transfer house in New York City that can do the job with minimal chance of loss or damage to the films.

Big bonus points for answers from anyone with direct experience of similar transfers from old films. I'm limiting to New York City since I'm so worried about these films that I don't want to trust them to shipping.

Googling came up with DiJiFi in Brooklyn -- their web site reassures me on the technical side with talk of options for ProRes formats, 60 GB/hour bit rates, and per-scene color and contrast adjustments. That is great to hear about, but I'm also looking for reassurance on the reputation and reliability side. This 2010 Ask question has the style of recommendation I'm looking for, and would help more if not for the Bay Area and its-been-a-long-time-since-2010 aspects.

posted by Tacit to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: DiJiFi has an excellent reputation.

A documentary I co-produced involved lots of precious archival footage. DiJiFi went to incredible lengths with great care to re-spool, clean and digitize damaged Hi8 (video) tapes, uncovering national treasures for the Timorese people. We also shot lots of Super 8 and Super 16 for some scenes and got all of that footage transferred there.

All I can say is if the film breaks/burns I would not blame them - and I'd be happy to be somewhere where they will do whatever they can to restore what's salvageable.

Rafik has a good reputation too, but I don't know anyone who's used them for lab work recently.
posted by theory at 6:38 AM on April 19, 2019

I used DiJiFi on a small project and was totally satisfied.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:15 AM on April 19, 2019