Hunter, Lake & Coast Digitising

17/09/2023

What a find! Who knew there was a zoo in Lake Macquarie? Had you visited it?
Some excellent footage from a customers home movie 8mm film showing the zoo that used to exist in Carey Bay. Thanks for allowing us to share, Ian G.

This customer had actually had this film transferred to DVD in the past by a prominent company. It really shines once it's been re scanned in Full HD on a new purpose built scanner made in 2019.

🎥For anyone that has film reels or knows of a friend or family member that might have - We digitise film reels in a quality far superior to others in the area. You'd have to go to Canberra or Melbourne to find someone with the same quality of scanner.

💚We do free sample scans, and free comparison scans! If you've had your film transferred in the past and wondering how much better it can look, we'll do a free scan, and transfer the VHS, DVD or flash drive and show you a side by side.
The free sample scan is no commitment, you'll be given your film back, and we encourage you to take it to others to see what their quality is like.

🥇Our quality is far better than the wolverine pro and projector transfer systems many use, but claim are professional.

20/12/2022

We only have a few more spots to get your family films digitisited before chistmas!

If you have any reels of old 8mm, super 8, 16mm film that you'd like to relive on Christmas Day with the family on the TV, please message us now!

17/12/2022

Warning - There are plenty of places out there offering a service to convert your film reels to a dvd or USB, particularly people advertising on Facebook marketplace or in groups.

You should be aware if they aren’t openly sharing what machine they use for scanning the reels, it’s most likely a tiny cheap consumer toy called the wolverine moviemaker pro, or Kodak Reels - both the same thing, just a different case.
The quality of these scanners is very low, they are only good for using to make a low quality copy of your film to view, allowing you to see what’s on there.
Generally their customers are happy as the footage they see if of their family, and they are enjoying the memories, not necessarily the quality. Also the customers are warned how old the film is, how’s it’s deteriorating so quickly and you’ll be lucky to get anything out of it.
The truth is, 90% of the film we scan looks incredible, and just needs a good clean and scan using the wetgate to hide scratches and cracks. They will look better than you had seen on the projector

These scanners, made by FilmFabriek are designed and manufactured professionally to sell to film archives. The quality is far better!

See the comments for a link to a YouTube video where we scanned a resolution test film comparing them both

29/07/2022

Do you have an old super 8 camera in the cupboard? It could still have an undeveloped cartridge of film in there!

We’ve been testing developing old Kodachrome as a black and white negative. Kodak stopped offering processing years ago, and the only place offering a service is in Canada.
It’s no longer able to be processed as a colour positive, but it gets surprisingly good results as B&W!

We will be launching this development service soon, so have a dig in the cupboard to see!
We’re also on the lookout for super 8 cameras, and can offer trade ins.

We can scan developed film too!

28/05/2022

Some Scenes from Kiama

21/12/2021

At Terrigal Haven, A Treasure Hunt! Leave a comment if you ever saw this, or even a story if you participated.

03/04/2021

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by flooding recently. If your home was affected by flooding, here's some information from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia about how to handle water/flood damaged film and media. We can work with some media that's been damaged, but it's important to act soon before it deteriorates further https://www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/guide/home/first-aid-water

How to minimise water damage for film and video.

15/03/2021

Something that sets us far ahead of others is the ability to reduce film scratches and cracks at the source as we scan.

Our scanner has a wetgate function that coats the film in a solvent to fill scratches before it's scanned. It's essentially like resurfacing a road to make it smooth again. No software tricks! The improvement is astounding.

The scanner also has a modified light that produces far more diffused light that further reduces the visibility of cracks and scratches, but also retains 100% of the detail you want to see. The CRI value (colour rendering index) of an LED is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. Meaning it shows up almost 100% of the coloured dye on the film.

We're only 1 of 3 places that we know of in Australia that have the ability to do this.

There are plenty of places that claim they do scratch reduction, but normally it's using ancient software called "Neat Video" Which is essentially putting makeup on to hide blemishes.
Sure, software will improve in the future for restoration work, but you're far better off starting with a clean source material.

10/03/2021

A cool retro flyer for a machine we have here. The RTI TapeChek works wonders cleaning VHS tapes.
These were pretty common at video rental shops back in the day, they'd clean and refresh the tapes after a hire to be almost as good as new!

We use them to clean off mould and oxide on the tapes which causes poor playback during the transfer. It also detect physical damage on the tape from times it might have been jammed in the VCR, or pulled out by a curious toddler.

We're lucky enough to have one as they are pretty hard to come by these days! Not many others digitisation businesses have one, so they struggle to get a clean transfer with poor condition tapes.

10/03/2021

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 - 8mm (Super 8 and Standard 8 both with sound if recorded), 16mm, 35mm

We have an excellent 2K (1080p Full HD) scanner, modified in house to further improve image quality that will outperform other scanners in Australia.

⚪️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

08/03/2021

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.

08/03/2021

Do you recognise anyone in the video? or were you here? Let us know in the comments!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any old media you need digitised and preserved!

01/02/2021

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!

31/01/2021

BTS - This is our movie film scanner, the Universal MkII with a 2K camera. It's a big step up from previous offerings! With the right operator, it will outperform a lot of other scanning services in Australia. It's quality is greater than 1080p "Full HD"

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!

28/01/2021

Take a drive through Sydney heading north! This was another section of a reel from an unknown person. Hopefully someone might recognise the car and/or people!

25/01/2021

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 on Caves Beach NSW and also a short section of Newcastle where the camera takes a trip over the ferry to Stockton. Do you recognise anywhere?

24/10/2020

Q: What sets us apart from our competitors?

A: 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 1080p/HD along with a whopping 2.8K (2.8 x 1080/standard HD resolution). We are ahead of our competitors to provide you with the best quality affordably available. This is not only great for now but for the future also.

We keep strong consistent contact with you all of the time so there are no surprises.

A highlight into some of the things we do:

Convert your old family home videos to digital. Most tapes are deteriorating and growing mould. We can clean and then transfer your tapes in the original quality to a digital file onto a Flashdrive/USB or DVD.

*We follow correct archival practices by using professional equipment resulting in clean transfers.

Video Tape Transfers:
Hi8, Video 8, Digital 8
MiniDV, DV
VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C
We copy them off in the best possible quality, to be stored on a flash drive, external hard drive or DVD.

Movie Film Scanning:
Super 8 and standard 8mm movie film scanned frame-by-frame to create a full HD video.
*We also now offer a whopping 2.8k resolution! This sets us apart massively from anyone else that can offer this service, as they do not have this professional equipment. But not only that, your film is carefully cleaned by hand before scanning. We take enormous care when handling your film and do what we can to help you preserve it in the best condition possible.
We can also extract the audio from sound film, to add to the scanned video clip.
The file is colour corrected, stabilised and noise reduction is applied.
*this requires proper video editing software which we do obtain. We are videographers and have been for the past several years, and so we are able to get this done efficiently but properly too without sacrificing quality.

Photo Scanning:
Dust off those photo albums! We can scan all your photo negatives & photo slides, with a high resolution scanner. Dust and other blemishes are removed via software.
We also clean and transfer your negatives and slides into archival sleeves.

***Message or view FB page for detailed pricing

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

27/08/2020

Tape Repairs!

Yes, we can splice broken tape, remove mould, replace the broken plastic shell and clean out ants nests (yes, we've had that).

One of the trickiest tape media we receive are Video8/Hi8 tapes.
They're old - so very prone to mould, and the tape is also extremely thin and fragile.
The mould practically glues the tape together, so if you try to play the tape, it will tear immediately as it hits a mould spot, requiring the case to be opened, and the break spliced.

The best method we have so far to deal with these tapes is by controlled heating or "tape baking".
Tape baking is popular for working with reel to reel audio tape, but it's for a different problem involving the binder. The baking method still seems to work well for mouldy tapes as it slightly softens the bond, allowing you to play it.

If you have any Video8, Hi8, 8mm video tape, we strongly urge you to get it transferred ASAP as it's becoming increasing difficult to treat these tapes, and occasionally the mould is so bad there's just not much that can be done.

27/08/2020

Here’s one of the splicers we use for film.
They are highly prized by archivists due to their ease of use with tape, the ability to accomodate shrunken film, and you can repair splices without looking any extra film frames by simply going over the loose splice.

It’s made by CIR or sometimes called “Catozzo”, which is the surname of the inventor - Leo Catozzo.
Leo invented his own splicer as he was allergic to the film cement used by standard splicers!

It will handle 16mm and regular 8mm.
Made in Italy, they were very popular in Europe but not many made their way to Australia. Many splicers you’ll find here in Australia are the simple cement/super glue splicing.

We can still get the correct film splicing tape from the USA for this model too!

It’s just one of the tools that’s crucial to the care and handling of film we digitise

01/07/2020

WELCOME - We have been providing our services for quite some time now and thought, lets make it official with a brand new spanking page! 🥳

For all that are wondering what we do..
Video Tape Transfers:
Hi8, Video 8, Digital 8
MiniDV, DV
VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C
We copy them off in the best possible quality, to be stored on a flash drive, external hard drive or DVD.

Movie Film Scanning:
Super 8 and standard 8mm movie film scanned frame-by-frame to create a full HD video.
Your film is carefully cleaned by hand before scanning.
We can also extract the audio from sound film, to add to the scanned video clip.
The file is colour corrected, stabilised and noise reduction is applied.

Photo Scanning:
Dust off those photo albums! We can scan all your photo negatives & photo slides, with a high resolution scanner. Dust and other blemishes are removed via software.
We also clean and transfer your negatives and slides into archival sleeves.