Benefits of Microfilm in the Digital Age

By Joe Bryant, General Manager

When I started in the document management business 40 years ago, microfilm was king. What better way to securely backup paper records? It was inexpensive, duplicates could be easily created and it was an exact representation of the original paper document. Really, the only real issue was the cost of the equipment needed to view and print.

Years later, digitizing of paper records became the norm. It cost about the same as microfilming but the real savings were the easy distribution of the images and the fact that everyone had a PC on their desktop which allowed for easy access to the information.

Microfilm still has its place

Still, microfilm has its place in the information and image management business. It provides an eye-readable form of the original information. This is important if your organization is required to archive data with a state or the federal government. The other benefit is the longevity of the microfilm media itself. If properly processed and stored, microfilm will last well over 100 years.

Converting digital images directly to microfilm

It doesn’t make sense to scan the film directly from the paper files so our industry, seeing this need, created cameras that would convert digital images directly to microfilm. This service is available for both regular digital files to 16mm film and the conversion of large format drawings to 35mm. This way the benefits of both digital and microfilm can be realized.

Next time you have some scanning done, ask your vendor about the option of having film generated from your images.

Contact MCS Seattle for Microfilm Archiving Services

For digitizing records and for all your microfilm services, please contact MCS in Seattle today!

Call us at 206-248-3191.