A local digitization firm is offering Hollywood-level film scanning to Chicago-area families and organizations who are in a race against ongoing film degradation.
CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Based in Chicago’s Ravenswood area, Scan5 is a locally owned digitization business that is increasing public knowledge about its high-end film scanning offerings for 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm reels. Their equipment is the Lasergraphics Archivist scanner—the same model relied upon by Hollywood production companies and national archival institutions—which enables them to digitize 8mm film, Super 8, and 16mm reels in resolutions as high as 5K.
This service tackles an escalating issue for Chicago households and organizations that possess film collections from decades past. Acetate-based reels frequently succumb to vinegar syndrome—a chemical deterioration resulting in brittleness, shrinkage, and warping. This degradation, once started, is irreversible. Furthermore, the consumer projectors that used to play these reels are increasingly scarce, meaning many collections sit in storage without any way to view them.
Rather than capturing film while it runs through a projector, Scan5 handles each reel one frame at a time. The Lasergraphics Archivist scanner isolates every single frame, removing the motion blur, flicker, and color inaccuracies common in older telecine transfers. The default file format is .mp4 for convenient playback on contemporary gadgets, while clients can opt for ProRes .mov as an enhanced option suitable for archival storage and post-production work.
Clients have three ways to transfer 8mm to digital or scan Super 8 and 16mm reels into high-resolution digital files: they can drop off materials in person at the Ravenswood office, arrange for a local courier to pick them up within a 50-mile radius of Chicago, or use prepaid UPS shipping if they are located farther away. Each project starts with a complimentary, written, itemized estimate following inspection, with zero obligation to move forward.
“From the moment we scan a reel, it stops deteriorating,” stated Dave Rosen, founder of Scan5. “For families and organizations holding irreplaceable footage, securing that stability is a reason to take action before yet another year of storage goes by.”
Scan5 has finished digitization work for clients such as the University of Chicago, DePaul, UIC, The Field Museum, CTA, and The Innocence Project, as well as thousands of personal family archives. Throughout each project, the original reels are kept in a climate-controlled storage space under round-the-clock surveillance, and they are returned exactly as they were received. Every project also comes with a complimentary cloud download.
More details regarding film scanning services and pricing can be found at scan5.com.
About Scan5
Scan5 is a neighborhood-owned digitization firm located at 4001 N Ravenswood Ave, Suite 502-B, in Chicago’s Ravenswood district. The business focuses on transforming analog materials—such as photos, slides, negatives, videotapes, film reels, audio cassettes, and discs—into contemporary digital files. Since 2018, founder Dave Rosen has overseen digitization projects spanning a wide range of scales. Scan5 holds memberships in both the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce and the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce. For further information, visit scan5.com.
Dave Rosen
Scan5
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