Digitising - Roam Ahead

We offer a professional image & video transfer service in Newcastle & the Hunter Region, Lake Macquarie & the Central Coast and beyond.
We can scan and digitise all home photo and video media in the highest quality.

📸 Photo prints, negatives and slides

📹 Video tapes – The large VHS and all the small camcorder/video camera tapes (VHS-C, MiniDV, Hi8, Video8). Also obscure formats such as U-Matic, Betamax, 1/2inch B&W Professional formats such as Betacam & DVCAM.

🎥📽 Movie Film Formats – 8, 9.5mm or 16mm along with sound.

We have an excellent 4K Cinema (4096×3000) scanner, where aspect ratio is adjustable on all formats (HD up to 4K cinema).

This scanner has a wetgate system where if the film has any nasty scratches or alike, the scan will hide those scratches seamlessly where the end product will be that of the best that it can be; beautiful, smooth but crisp. Ultimately, the best way to restore your film in the most professional way.

⚪️ We use professional and prosumer equipment that meets IASA standards

⚪️ We have excellent knowledge of different media and the associated equipment, and how to service and operate the equipment

⚪️ We know you only want to do this once, and it needs to be done perfectly.

⚪️ We care about preserving your media

Searching google and facebook gives you a huge variety of places to transfer your tapes. You should know that transfering tapes isn’t as simple as having a VCR to play, and a computer to cature.
For starters – you need to have the ability to clean and renew the tapes, a professional or prosumer VCR with far better playback than normal VCRs, the correct signal processing and capture card, and the knowledge of how to work with tape media and keep the machines operating as they should

Many places just buy a bottom end $20 VCR on facebook marketplace and a mini USB capture card box off ebay. This equipment requires no skill to operate, and produces subpar results.
 

We can also wet scan, which means the film passes through a specially designed gate that coats the film in a thin layer of solvent which fills most of the cracks and scratches in the film. The solvent evaporates immediately after if passes through, and it’s listed by Kodak as a film safe chemical.

This method is far superior to any software or restoration pack someone might offer such as “neat video” which claims it can remove scratches, but it mostly just reduces sharpness to make them appear less prominent, but also reduces the detail you want to see, like family faces!

Picture Below – This is our previous movie film scanner, the Universal MkII with a 2K camera. It’s quality is greater than 1080p “Full HD”

COMING SOON – The current film scanner we use that scans up to 4K Cinema quality along with a wetgate system and also capability to scan film with sound! Picture to come soon..

FOUND FILMS:

This 8mm film was found in a load of film we bought on eBay. We don’t know the owner, but it’s such an interesting outlook of Sydney heading north.

The most common question we’re asked..

Q: What sets us apart from our competitors and why should we choose you?

QUALITY + CARE, PROFESSIONALISM, EQUIPMENT, TURNAROUND TIMES & AFFORDABILITY

Our machines, equipment and setup is to archiving standards. We don’t use a dirty machine that’s never been serviced. This is a common problem with most other business’ and will affect the quality of the files you will be given! Is it worth having your family heirlooms be sent to a business that may be slightly cheaper but offer poor quality exports and potentially damage your things?! No, because you will unfortunately be looking at getting them digitised again, and that will be more expensive and time consuming in the long run. You would also potentially be risking your priceless family memories to be damaged and un-redeemable!

We have fast turnaround times and offer the highest quality available.

Our competitors are limited at 1080p/HD resolution, whereas we cover HD through to 4K Cinema quality of a multitude of different film sizes as well as for film with sound. Our scanner uses the wetgate system where your Digital files will reveal the best end product you can receive where the scratches are seamlessly hidden where the film itself is still beautiful and smooth but crisp.

Your film is carefully cleaned by hand before scanning and re-splicing done where need be. We take enormous care when handling your film and do what we can to help you preserve it in the best condition possible.

The file is colour corrected, stabilised and noise reduction is applied.

*this requires proper video editing software which we do obtain and have licensing to do so. We are filmmakers and have been for the past several years, and so we are able to get this done efficiently but properly too without sacrificing quality. You can rest assured knowing that we know what we are doing and take ultimate care with your films.

And finally, we keep strong consistent contact with you all of the time so there are no surprises.

It’s critical that if you get your film digitised, you know what the business is using. Many will shy away from making it public as they might be using a bottom end cheap scanner, a 10 year old outdated model that’s producing a scan similar to VHS quality, or a modified projector. Also that the business is willing to put the time and care into getting the best out of your film. These scanners are not a simple “load and go”. Just like a DSLR camera needs a good photographer to get the best photos, a film scanner needs a good operator to get the most detail out of the film!

Be wary of the projection method (where most, not all, but most other businesses offer without telling you) where they project onto the wall or alike and film the wall.. This method is not only incredibly destructive to your film but also means you will not be receiving the best quality that you should. Avoid this at all costs. It is not worth it. You will regret this and will want to rescan your film again and by this point your film will be damaged from that method. This is something to keep in mind when projecting to watch the films also – please be mindful that you could be damaging your film.

We are the business you trust, read our reviews to see!

"Thankyou for digitalising our 20 year old home family videos.! Professional work and trustworthy. So happy to view these movies again after so many years and to be able to copy them to make copies for other family members. Highly recommended and thank you so much!!"

"Thanks Jen for all your assistance. Great job. Highly recommended."

"So so happy with the great job your team did with some old broken video recorder tapes I had, I thought these memories were lost forever. Thank you so much. "