ScanStation

Ultimate Flexibility

8mm to 70mm IMAX up to 60fps

Our fastest and most versatile scanner.

Feature Comparison and Technical Specifications

Request More Information or a Free Scan Test

Maximum Resolution

Self-adjusting optical magnification delivers maximum resolution for all film gauges.

35mm

16mm

8mm

65/70mm

VistaVision

IMAX

Damaged and Warped Film Scanning

Optical Pin Registration (no edge guiding)

For the best stability of shrunk and damaged film.

Lasergraphics' proprietary 2D optical pin registration system locates up to 8 perforations and is able to register the frame even if only one of the perforations is usable. The frame is stabilized in the X, Y, and rotation axes. Therefore, shrunken film can be effectively stabilized with no mechanical or software adjustments. All optical pin registration is performed during the scanning process, eliminating the need for any post-processing.

Lasergraphics scanners are highly immune to perforation damage and splices while maintaining registration. Lasergraphics' 2D optical pin registration detects the location of all of the holes and then determines which ones are damaged. The damaged ones are ignored while the undamaged ones are used to align the image.

  • Optical pin registration is superior to:
  • Mechanical pin registration, which engages the film in only two perforations and is only effective on undamaged and unshrunken film.
  • Edge guiding, which weaves laterally because it entirely ignores the holes and is highly intolerant of splices.

Sprocketless Film Transport

Continuous motion sprocketless capstan servo drive for constant film tension and safe film handling.

Software-controlled adjustable film tension.

Each frame held motionless in gate during scan for optimal imaging of damaged and warped film.

Stable Diffuse Light Source

Stable low-heat LED light source protects film from heat damage and diffuse uniform illumination from the integrating cube reduces the appearance of scratches in the film base and emulsion (that do not damage the dye layers) without softening, blurring, or altering the image.

On-axis light passes through undamaged film and reaches lens
On-axis light passes through scratch which deflects it away from the lens
Off-axis light from diffuse source passes through scratch but nevertheless reaches lens
Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.

Warped Film Scanning

Warped film can't naturally lay flat in the gate causing the center to appear shrunk compared to the edges and the resulting output will have a ripple or “potato chip” effect.

Warped film in gate without clamp
Warped film in gate with clamp

Automatic Failed Splice Recovery™

This patented feature eliminates the need to pre-inspect film. After the operator repairs a broken splice, the scanner automatically finds the proper frame and continues. Video and sound remain synchronized.

Soundtrack and KeyKode reading

  • Simultaneous image scanning and soundtrack/KeyKode reading
  • Synchronized audio and image output to ProRes and H.264 (no post-processing or third-party tools required)
  • Variable scan speed for fragile film (no requirement to read in real-time)
  • Optical soundtrack extraction from scanned image
  • Automatic continuous alignment of track to edge of film (no need for constant manual adjustment e.g. thumbscrews)
  • Noise reduction processing reduces noise dramatically compared to conventional slit-based readers
    • Optical reader:
    • 35/17.5/16/9.5/8mm soundtrack reading
    • 65/35/16mm KeyKode reading
    • Silver and cyan
    • Positive and negative
    • Diffuse light source for scratch and fingerprint reduction, minimizing ticks and pops
    • Automatic continuous alignment of track to edge of film
  • SoundView visual soundtrack position control
    • Variable-density optical soundtrack reading from negative film
    • Conventional optical soundtrack readers are designed to read the soundtrack from print and NOT negative film, which results in distorted audio, pops, clicks, and static.
    • Lasergraphics optical soundtrack reading technology is able to read the soundtrack from both print AND negative film, which results in undistorted audio and no pops, clicks, or static.
    Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.
    • Magnetic reader: (no need for separate magnetic soundtrack reading system)
    • 16mm commag
    • 16mm sepmag 2-channel
    • Super 8mm commag 2-channel
    • Standard 8mm commag
    • 35mm sepmag 3-channel
    • 17.5mm sepmag

High Dynamic Range Scanning

Single-pass color and B&W 2-flash HDR scanning for the best capture of print film shadow detail

Often, part or all of the original negative is missing when it comes time for an older film to be scanned. This requires that print film be scanned for the missing portions. Whereas the highest density on negative film is about 2.0, the highest density on print film is 4.0 or more. Thus, scanning print film requires up to 1,000 times more dynamic range than negative film.

Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.

Conventional film scanners are optimized to scan negative and not print film, resulting in shadow detail loss or noise.

In contrast, the ScanStation's 2-flash scanning capability can easily capture shadow details on print film at densities well beyond 4.0.

Below are scan comparisons between the ARRISCAN, the dft Scanity, and the ScanStation from the same print film using 2-flash scanning. Images have been digitally brightened 1,000 times to reveal detail in the shadow (i.e. high density) regions. Notice the vertical artifacts, excessive noise, and loss of detail in the ARRISCAN and dft images.
Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.
Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.
Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.

Dye Fade Correction

Built-in color grading tools for easy dye fade correction, applied during scan, eliminates secondary post-processing step.

Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.

Intelligent Noise Reduction (INR)

Dramatically reduces noise in high density print and negative film.

Color print

High exposure B&W negative
Click and drag back-and-forth on ⊲⊳ to compare images.

JPEG 2000

Archiving scanned images losslessly has always been the gold standard but results in very large files. Using lossless compression can reduce the storage requirement by 50%, but traditionally converting images to compressed lossless formats like JPEG 2000 has been a very slow process.

Our improved JPEG 2000 encoding capability can generate lossless JPEG 2000 files during scanning without impacting scanning speed and without post-processing.

For example, the ScanStation can scan directly to lossless JPEG 2000 2K at 60 fps, and 4K at 30 fps.

  • High performance encoding during scanning (not a post-process)
  • Lossy or lossless
  • 8, 10, 12, or 16 bits per color
  • Typical compression ratio for lossless mode is 50% (image dependent)
  • Significant reduction in storage space and bandwidth requirements
    • Ouput file format options:
    • MXF wrapper - entire scan in a single file (including audio)
    • JP2 - one file per frame

Complete film scanning system

  • Host computer ready-to-use and pre-configured with Microsoft Windows and Lasergraphics Motion Picture Film Scanning System software featuring:
  • Full transport and scanning control
  • Adjustable horizontal and vertical framing with visual selection of scan area
  • Aperture and shading correction
  • Automatic or manual DMin calibration
  • Self-calibrating intensity, focus, and film base
  • Fast interactive gray balance and base calibration
  • Shuttling from 1 to 100 frames/second (200 frames/second for 16mm) with image preview and KeyKode recognition.
  • Selectable scanning speed
  • Adjustable film tension
  • KeyKode-based job management
  • Multiple simultaneous output resolutions and data formats including DPX, TIFF, and ProRes.
  • Fast ProRes and and H.264 proxies/dailies
  • Per-clip color correction
  • Negative film type optimization
    Many common negative film types are carefully characterized at Lasergraphics to allow our scanning software to compensate for variation. The result is more accurate color reproduction and less time spent color grading.
  • RollView with thumbnail preview and automatic clip/splice detection
  • Seamless and easy integration with popular restoration systems including support for a secondary (reference) monitor and popular color grading panels.
  • Storage options:
  • PCIe slot available for customer-supplied adapter to connect to NAS, DAS, or SAN systems.
  • Internal 16TB SSD or 32TB HDD SATA RAID
  • Other:
  • Meticulously calibrated, aligned and tested at the factory.
  • Power requirements similar to a standard PC workstation
  • Operates in normal office environment (no special cooling required)
  • Full one year warranty (parts and labor)
  • Extended warranty available

Trade Up

Lasergraphics offers an extremely generous trade up program that can increase the capability of your scanning system as your requirements grow over time without losing your existing investment.

Technical Specifications

  • Imaging system
  • Color Filter Array (CFA) image sensor
  • Bayer pattern color capture
  • 1.25K, 2.5K, 4K, 5K, or 6.5K scanning resolution
  • High MTF resolution lens
  • Self-adjusting focus
  • 4:3, 16:9, 1.85, and 2.35 aspect ratios
  • 10-bit or 16-bit log or linear bit depth (data format dependent)
  • 2-Flash color and B&W High Dynamic Range (HDR)
  • Intelligent Noise Reduction (INR)
  • Film base calibration, color grading and focus independently adjusted by shot/clip/scene
  • 60 fps max scanning speed
  • Light source
  • Integrating cube containing high-intensity, low-heat RGB LEDs
  • Self-calibrates before each scan
  • 100,000 hour lifespan
  • Film transport system
  • Continuous motion sprocketless capstan servo drive
  • Removable film gates with or without pressure plate for warped film
  • 2D optical pin registration
  • Software-controlled adjustable film tension
  • Selectable transport over particle transfer rollers
  • Film shrinkage tolerance up to 5.5%
  • Automatic Failed Splice Recovery™
  • Supported film formats
  • 8mm, Super 8mm, Double 8mm, 9.5mm, 16mm, Super 16mm, 17.5mm, 28mm, 35mm, Super 35mm, 65/70mm 5-perf, VistaVision, and IMAX 8/15-perf
  • Optical zoom for full resolution on all film formats
  • Supported film types
  • Negative, Intermediate, Interpositive, Print, Reversal, Color, and B&W
  • Optical soundtrack/KeyKode reader
  • Soundtrack/KeyKode reading simultaneous with image scanning
  • Variable scan speed
    • Optical reader:
    • 35/17.5/16/9.5/8mm soundtrack reading
    • 65/35/16mm KeyKode reading
    • Variable area and variable density
    • Silver and cyan
    • Positive and negative
    • Automatic continuous alignment of track to edge of film
    • Diffuse light source
  • Magnetic soundtrack reader
  • 16mm commag
  • 16mm sepmag 2-channel
  • Super 8mm commag 2-channel
  • Standard 8mm commag
  • 35mm sepmag 3-channel
  • 17.5mm sepmag
  • Max film capacity
  • 2,000 feet
  • Built-in color grading
  • Ungraded or primary-color graded via lift/gamma/gain or black/white/contrast color controls.
  • Support for 3-ball color grading panel
  • Simple dye fade correction
  • Image, video, and audio output file formats
  • 6.5K, 6K, 5K, 4K, UHD (2160p), 2K, Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), SD and others
  • DPX color/B&W 10/16-bit (conforms to SMPTE 268M for compatibility with graphics, compositing, and other post production systems)
  • JPEG 2000 (contained within MXF file)
  • ADX (Academy Density Exchange Encoding)
  • TIFF (8/16-bit)
  • QuickTime (ProRes 4444 HQ/XQ, ProRes 422, and others)
  • WAV/BWF
  • Host computer
  • High-performance host computer preconfigured with Microsoft Windows OS and all required adapters and scanner control software
  • Internal RAID storage
  • 2 PCIe slots available for customer-supplied high-speed connectivity and storage (e.g. 10GbE/40GbE NICs, Fibre Channel, RAID HBA, etc.)
  • 16:9 aspect ratio LCD monitor
  • Software support for customer-supplied reference monitor via HDMI or DisplayPort
  • Host computer can be operated remotely via KVM and/or remote access software
  • Weight
  • 343 lbs. (156 kg) (scanner, editing table, and host computer)
  • Dimensions
  • 54" - 87" H x 47" W x 31" D (137 cm - 221 cm x 119 cm x 79 cm) - including desk
  • Adjustable counter height: 26" - 40" (66 cm - 102 cm)
  • Operating environment
  • 15ºC to 30ºC
  • 15% to 85% relative humidity non condensing
  • 90-250V ~50/60Hz 705W

Many of the features described above are additional-cost options and not included in the base price of the scanner.

Request More Information or a Free Scan Test