This service is only available as a flat scan to give you the most economical way to see what’s on your film.

Typically for maximum results, archiving, feature film, TV productions, museum gallery / installation. The extremely high resolution is future friendly as technology evolves. We scan at 5K and can downscale to any resolution (5K/4K/UHD 3.8K/1080p). Why this option? When the 5K image gets scaled down to fit a reduced resolution, details become sharper. 5K FLAT SCAN is also an economical choice for the highest quality image capture aimed for colour correction. Also, if you want to make a high quality photo print of a certain frame, get a 5K scan.

The scanner optics are setup for 2K. We can downscale to 1080p HD from our 2K scan. This provides an even sharper image than compared to a 1080p scan. For most 1080p output is sufficient. However, we offer the 2K output at the same price. For best results, get the TIMED SCAN.

What’s all this about HDR?

HDR (High Dynamic Range) scanning is our new Standard. It allows us to give you the best in image quality. Films that may have dark or bright scenes will benefit immensely. Normally exposed images come out smoother and cleaner.

Because it has impressed us that much, HDR Scanning has become our new Standard Scanning Method. No one else in town has the specific bleeding edge technology we are using.

Why are we doing this?

Frame Discreet is quietly recognized as the only place to go if you want the best quality film scan. Image quality and truly reproducing what’s on the film is our number one goal.

Justin started this back in 2004 when he couldn’t find a place that could do a good enough scan to meet his standards as a Cinematographer. Since then we’ve grown dramatically and upgraded from Standard Definition to High Definition to 2k Flat Data scans to 5k scans… hand after hand pushing the envelope in Motion Picture Film Scanning.

Our newest upgrade – which has never before been offered for small format – HDR (High Dynamic Range) Scanning is notably one of our most exciting upgrades.

This improvement is significant enough to make it our new Standard.

Why is this important to me?

No one is perfect – and we see underexposed and overexposed film everyday. Our standard (NON-HDR) scanning techniques do an excellent job holding that detail.. but quite often images could benefit from a HDR Scan that can effectively dig and find buried information in the shadows and highlights.

How does it work?

High Dynamic range scanning is achieved by scanning each frame of film twice. Pass 1 exposes for the shadows, Pass 2 exposes for the highlights. The two images are combined giving an amazing dynamic range of detail.

This takes us twice as long – but the improvements are impressive enough that we just can’t help wanting to scan everything in HDR. Quality is our #1 priority.
As a balance to our hard costs for the upgrade and the extra time involved running the scanning at 1/2 speed, we should be charging double the NON-HDR rate. But we understand that budgets are tight and we want to make this an accessible option. As a happy medium we are doing the service at a 30% price difference.

If you wish to have a NON-HDR scan, no problem. We still offer this service as an economical option.

On below detail note the reduction of chunky colour noise in the highlights.  This is cropped in on a 16mm frame on a flat scan.