A service of Legacy Digital Productions
Your family’s film, scanned frame by frame.
8mm, Super 8 and 16mm reels digitised in our own Southern California lab since 2001. Every frame captured individually, never a projector pointed at a screen. Your originals come back in the same shipment.
One lab in Orange, California. Walk in Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 4:30pm, or ship from anywhere. Call ahead so someone is free to log your reels in.
The same lab Hollywood uses
The reels Spielberg shot as a teenager were scanned on the same machines as yours.
When the documentary Spielberg needed Steven Spielberg’s childhood films preserved, the producers brought them to our parent lab, Legacy Digital Productions. Netflix’s Lucy and Desi came here too, for the family’s personal tapes. Same equipment, same hands, same building as a shoebox of 8mm from a garage in Anaheim.
Documentary
“Spielberg”
His childhood films, converted at the highest possible quality.
Netflix
“Lucy and Desi”
The family’s personal video tapes, converted for the film.
125,000+ reels
transferred since 2001 without losing a single item. Every reel is logged under chain of custody.
4.9 / 5 ★★★★★
Across more than 200 Google reviews of the lab, unedited. Read them on Google →
Frame by frame
Each frame captured as its own image at true HD 1080p minimum, up to 2K, on Academy grade equipment.
Start here
Not sure what you are holding?
Most people inherit film without any idea what gauge it is, and the box almost never tells the truth. Hold a foot of film up to a window and look at two things: the width, then the sprocket holes. Regular 8mm and Super 8 are both 8mm wide, and only the perforations tell them apart. 16mm is twice as wide. If you have a dime handy, there is a simple way to tell 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm apart in about a minute.
You do not need a projector to check, and you should not use one: a forty-year-old splice letting go inside a projector is how frames get lost. Send a photo instead and we will tell you the gauge.
Regular 8mm
Small, square sprocket holes, 1932 to the 1970s. Usually silent.
Super 8
Smaller, rectangular holes and a bigger frame, 1965 onward. Sometimes a sound stripe.
16mm
Twice the width. Holes on one edge or both. Its own job: 16mmfilmtransfer.com.
Not film?
A cassette, not a reel, is video tape. That is convertvideotapes.com.
How it works
Four steps, all under one roof.
1 · Intake
Every reel is logged by hand and tracked under a full chain of custody from the moment it arrives.
2 · Inspect
Splices are checked and brittle film assessed. Anything that would jam a scanner is dealt with before it runs.
3 · Scan
Each frame is captured as a separate image at true HD 1080p minimum, up to 2K, on Academy grade equipment.
4 · Return
Files on a flash or hard drive, and your original reels back in the same shipment. Always.
Pricing, before you ask
By the foot actually transferred.
If a 400 foot reel is only half full, you pay for the film that is really there. Two people who each say they have ten reels can get very different totals, with both quotes fair, because footage is the honest unit.
Published rates as of August 2026. How to estimate your own footage
3 inch
≈ $14.50–16
About 50 feet.
5 inch
≈ $58–64
About 200 feet.
7 inch
≈ $116–128
About 400 feet.
Who is actually handling your film
A family lab, not a fulfillment center.
Legacy Digital Productions has been family owned and operated in Orange, California since 2001. Scott Foster founded it and still does the work himself. The building your reels arrive at is the building they are scanned in, so we can say where your film is at any moment, and the queue we quote is genuinely ours.
Visit the lab
202 W Lincoln Ave, Suite A
Orange, CA 92865
Walk in Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 4:30pm. Call ahead so someone is free to log your items in properly.
Reviews
Unedited, from Google.
Google reviews of Legacy Digital Productions, the lab behind this service. These two brought 8mm and Super 8.
★★★★★
“Took in our old 8mm movie film and they converted all of the movies to CD’s and a flash drive with titles and break points based on years. These movies were first developed in the 1940’s and though the film was quite old, they did an outstanding job in the conversion.”
Al S · Google review, July 2026
★★★★★
“Had them do over 60 reels of super 8 with no audio, from the late 1960’s into early 1980’s. Then the following year some VHS tapes. All family stuff that is priceless. We are very pleased with the quality of everything.”
Kevin B · Google review, July 2026
Not sure what you have?
Send a photo of one reel. We will tell you the gauge, roughly how much film is on it, and what the transfer would involve. No obligation, and no pressure if you decide to wait.