What it costs
The arithmetic, so you can check any quote.
Almost every confusing quote in this industry comes from one thing: film is billed by the footage actually transferred, not by the reel. Once you can convert between the two, most quotes become comparable and the bad ones become obvious.
Our published rates
Gold is $0.28 per foot as of September 2026, which is where the familiar figure of about $14 for a standard 50 foot 8mm reel comes from. Platinum is $0.35 per foot, Pro 2K is $0.45 per foot, and sound adds $0.10 per foot. A $50 service minimum applies. We publish these so you can compare, not because they are the lowest.
Published rate, as of September 2026
$0.28 / ft, Gold
Published so you can check any quote against it. $50.00 minimum, shown as a “Minimum order adjustment” line. DVD or Blu-ray copies are $15 each.
Per reel, at those rates
3 inch reel
≈ $14
About 50 feet. If a quote prices this the same as a 7 inch reel, it is per-reel pricing.
5 inch reel
≈ $56
About 200 feet. Check whether the quote treats it as one reel or four small ones.
7 inch reel
≈ $112
About 400 feet. Where per-reel pricing quietly favours the customer and per-foot favours the lab.
A worked example to check a quote against. Twelve 3 inch reels and two 7 inch reels is 600 feet plus 800 feet: 1,400 feet, or about $392 in scanning at the Gold rate. Two of fourteen reels are more than half the bill. A quote that charges the same for each of the fourteen is per-reel pricing, and you can now tell whether it favours you. There are more worked examples of film transfer cost, including how the minimum order adjustment lands on small orders.
Two pricing models, and which suits you.
Per foot means a half-full reel costs half as much. It rewards you for having short reels and it is harder to compare at a glance. Per reel is simpler to quote and averages across customers, which means short-reel collections subsidise long-reel ones. Neither is a scam. Just make sure you know which you are being quoted.
Three reels of unknown content you simply want to see? A mail-in box service will do that and cost less than we will. It stops being fine when the material matters, the film is fragile, or you do not want to pay twice.
Get our number, then get theirs.
Send a photo of one reel and a count by size. We will send a written estimate at published rates you can put beside any other quote.