Q: <strong>Learn About EverPresent's AI Philosophy</strong>

Across all analog formats we use artificial intelligence as a support tool, not a substitute for human expertise. AI assists with stabilization, cleanup, and consistency, allowing our specialists to focus on judgment, quality control, and preservation decisions. We don’t apply the same approach to every format, and we don’t automate simply for speed. Slides demand different care than VHS tapes; audio requires different judgment than film. Each project is reviewed by people who understand the material , the era it came from, and the responsibility that comes with preserving it. Every order reflects the same philosophy: thoughtful technology, human oversight, and respect for the original.

Question 1

Learn About EverPresent's AI Philosophy

Accepted Answer

Across all analog formats we use artificial intelligence as a support tool, not a substitute for human expertise. AI assists with stabilization, cleanup, and consistency, allowing our specialists to focus on judgment, quality control, and preservation decisions.

We don’t apply the same approach to every format, and we don’t automate simply for speed. Slides demand different care than VHS tapes; audio requires different judgment than film. Each project is reviewed by people who understand the material, the era it came from, and the responsibility that comes with preserving it.

Every order reflects the same philosophy: thoughtful technology, human oversight, and respect for the original.

Question 2

Is it possible to convert film pictures to digital?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We can convert 8mm, Super8, 16mm, and several less common formats. We can work with almost any condition. Get a no-obligation quote today.

Question 3

How do you convert film to digital?

Accepted Answer

Our German-engineered NOVA scanner moves film frame-by-frame without using any sprockets, minimizing the risk of stretching or tearing. Each reel gets its own .mp4 file. You can upgrade to 2KHD (+$0.15 per foot) for sharper playback.

Question 4

How much does it cost to transfer film to digital?

Accepted Answer

$0.36 per foot for your first 1,000 feet, then $0.31 per foot after that. You can add USB, DVD, and extra cloud storage for an added cost. We offer other clean-up/enhancement features for extra as well.

Question 5

Do I get my original film back after the fact?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We always send back your reels after completing the film-to-digital conversion project.

Question 6

Does EverPresent offer quality enhancement?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We can optimize contrast, perform degraining, and stabilize wobbly footage. Deeper film restoration, such as frame-by-frame edits to color saturation or to remove scratches on the film, is a different beast. Let us know if this is what you’re looking for, and we can provide a quote or recommend a specialist with this ability.

Question 7

Does the film get organized during the digital conversion?

Accepted Answer

We transcribe the written labels into the DVD or USB menus when we convert film to digital. We clip every unique reel to a unique file after the transfer. That means you get 32 files back when you send us 32 reels. This is actually a rare feature. Most of our competitors take the path of least resistance, combining reels together and skipping the written labels.

Question 8

Does EverPresent offer film to digital services for institutions?

Accepted Answer

At any given moment we are doing multiple film transfer projects for institutions. Sometimes it’s larger catalogs of work where we are digitizing the whole collection for a department, library or even a whole campus. Other times we will be preserving film for a graduate student or individual faculty member for use in a research project or presentation. We often hear from alumni departments looking to digitize collections to re-engage with former students, including a recent project digitizing a full season of high school football films. We have worked with countless students over the years, usually film majors or students doing research for a history course. In general, we can handle large projects with ease, including projects with hundreds of thousands of feet of film. And we have deep experience helping institutions of all types, academic or otherwise, including businesses and offices of various kinds, and various governmental agencies. Our team can help with any info required to get a project going, including grant proposals, RFPs, etc. and we follow all of the relevant archival film preservation guidelines.

Question 9

Does EverPresent improve my film during transfer?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our process of transferring film to DVD can optimize contrast, perform degraining and stabilize wobbly footage. That said, deeper film restoration, such as frame-by-frame edits to color saturation or to remove scratches in the film, is a different beast. If you have needs in this area, let us know and we can provide a quote or recommend a specialist with this ability. Be advised that advanced film restoration will cost many multiples of the cost of the initial film digitizing fees.

Question 10

What film formats can EverPresent not digitize?

Accepted Answer

When transfer just about everything, whether it’s silent film or films with optical sound or magnetic sound, and whether the reels are in good or poor condition. The one format we don’t specialize in is the large format 35mm movie film. This is because these films are best handled by Hollywood-oriented film houses that have a history of working with this format. However, we’re happy to make a referral.

Question 11

How is Film prepared for digitizing?

Accepted Answer

Our film digitizing machines are really good – so good that they can reproduce high definition footage of all of the dust, mold and blemishes that have accumulated on your reels over the last 50 years. For numerous reasons, the preparation of the film is just as important as the equipment chosen. Specifically, EverPresent’s film to digital transfer team does the following:

The film itself is cleaned by microfiber cloth and/or a special cleaning solution to remove as much dust, scuff and other surface matter as possible.

The film is inspected for any bends or breakage. Where possible, we repair splices. This is critical, because damaged film can lead to jumpiness in the final digitized version, or even damage, if we don’t address it up front.

We also inspect the reels themselves. If the reel housing the film is in bad shape, or the footage is wound poorly, it can lead to issues in the capture. We very often will replace the original reel with a new one, or respool the footage to get optimal tension of the film transfer.

Lastly, we evaluate the reels for other forms of compromise, such as mold or vinegar syndrome. Where we can, we remediate the issue before the conversion process.

A lot of what we’ve written on this page is about the technology and process of transferring film to digital (sometimes spelled film-to-digital), not the people. But people are the most important part of EverPresent’s service. We make an expert consultant available to you at the start of the project so that you can ask all of the questions that need asking before making big decisions. Your technicians are skilled and go through extensive background checks and apprentice training before we let them digitize your cherished memories. Senior technicians quality check every order to ensure the integrity of the footage, and even write you a letter reviewing how the process turned out. For those clients in the Northeast, all transport of your materials to and from our digitizing studio is handled by our full-time in-house drivers so you don’t have to worry about the overwhelmed postal services losing your materials.

Question 12

will my film reels be organized?

Accepted Answer

The majority of film reels come to us in cardboard boxes where space was scarce to write a label or in a metal tin where a small piece of tape was used to write a label – again, with scarce space. Further, more than 80% of film reels are the three inch variety, and most people have a lot of them.

Our competitors tend to take the path of least resistance, which is to combine the reels together, skip the written labels, and create one master video file for all of the reels. This is not good! It means the films that may have been in order are certainly out of order, and there’s no way to navigate to footage you want in a DVD menu or USB drive folder structure.

At EverPresent, when we transfer film to DVDs, we transcribe the written labels into the DVD or USB menus. And after the transfer, we clip every unique reel into a unique file. So if you send us 32 reels, you get 32 files on your drive or 32 items in your DVD menu. This seems obvious, but we’re an exception in providing this level of organization.

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A $50 service fee applies to all orders. This service fee provides for safe handling procedures including: intake, item coding, physical & digital storage, quality checks by senior technicians and packaging.

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