Test chart maker DSC Laboratories to cease trading after decades

DSC Laboratories, the Canadian company synonymous with camera test charts, is closing down after almost 60 years and will cease trading next year.

This is one of those 'you won't miss them till they're gone' moments and feels like a significant one too as DSC Laboratories' ubiquitous test charts have been part of the industry for as long as most of us can remember.

David and Susan Corley started the original DSC in the basement of their home in 1962. It was already the leading Canadian TV commercial production house in the 1960s when David commented to Rodger J. Ross of CBC that he was not happy with the way his 35mm films reproduced on TV.

DSC worked with CBC Engineering Headquarters in Montreal to design a colorbar grayscale test pattern, engineering and re-engineering densitometers, printers, and processing equipment along the way. Two years later DSC produced its first practical test patterns and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Susan Corley, President of DSC Laboratories and co-founder of the company with her husband David, posted the following open letter on the front page of the company website yesterday. As she states, the company will accept orders up until October this year, with the last shipments being delivered in April 2025.

DSC Labs' charts come in many guises, but not for much longer

"A BIG thank you, to each and every one of you who has used our test materials over the past years.  After more than six decades of providing “better images through research”, David and I are winding up the operations of DSC, and would like to provide you, our loyal customers, with a final opportunity to stock up on the award-winning DSC products that you have come to know and trust.

"Our testing has found that DSC test charts, when stored in cool, dark conditions, have very good stability.  To facilitate the storage of DSC test charts, and then the measurement of their time-in-service, we have removed the printed replacement dates and have included a 24-month time strip, to be activated when a fresh test chart is put into use.

"To wind up our operations in an orderly manner, we plan to accept orders for DSC products, for the next few months (until the end of October), and then to produce and deliver these products until the spring of 2025.  As supplies for the manufacture of certain products are limited, we would ask that you please send in your orders as soon as reasonably possible.  We will do our best to fill all orders, but may suggest a similar product (if the one you have ordered is unavailable), or in some cases we may be unable to provide it.  Recognizing that you may be ordering products for use in the future, please let us know if you would like to delay the shipment of them to you for a brief period – (but to no later than April 2025).

"We are currently speaking with our dealers about them possibly acquiring a substantial inventory of DSC products to be sold in the coming years, and will let you know if we are successful in concluding such an arrangement or arrangements.

"Thank you again for your support and for your suggestions over the years. Our products have been developed in collaboration with this community, and our lives have been enriched by our meetings and conversations with all of you."