Cleaning negs

[thebanana]

I have had little success cleaning my negs completely prior to scanning. As a result there is usually lots of little pieces of dust and other detritus that is very irritating to deal with. What the best way to prep a neg for scanning?
J

 

[erikhatt]

I have had little success cleaning my negs completely prior to scanning. As a result there is usually lots of little pieces of dust and other detritus that is very irritating to deal with. What the best way to prep a neg for scanning?
J

I do also have trouble with getting negs/pos clean. But when im really need a clean neg, i bath it in filmcleaner from SDS.

 

[MikeSeb]

The best way to clean negatives you process yourself is to make sure you dry them in a dust-free place to minimize dust in the first place. Also, handle them with archival gloves on to avoid oily fingerprints which attract more dust.

Before scanning, brush them with an antistatic brush like a kinetronics or staticmaster to reduce the dust that accumulates; or blow them with canned air, after first making sure there's no liquid spluttering from the nozzle when you first press the trigger.

You should NOT have to use film cleaner for ordinary dust removal; you'd do that only to remove oily or sticky contaminants, which are better prevented by careful handling to begin with.

 

[timbo10ca]

I found a great place in Ontario for scanning products- Prazio. I use their Anti-neuton spray for negs in good shape, and then their film cleaning spray with a wipe after scanning. Prior to scanning, I use a Kinetronics brush, canned air and one of Prazio's scanner wipes (if needed). I don't have any negs in rough enough shape to have required cleaning with the spray prior to scanning, but you obviously could. I also have their anti-newton oil, but haven't had to use it yet. Their stuff is reasonably priced, and is from CANADA! (Yay!)

I'm actually using it RIGHT NOW!!!!

Tim

 

[pierods]

Dry film as mikeseb says.

Take the film in your hands, put it above a black/dark desk, stick a lamp over it and start taking off the dust specks with a brush.

When you are finished with one side, turn it and start with the other side.

With time you will notice that you need to turn the film at a specific angle to see the dust.

Scanning film is not an activity for people in a hurry.

PS before you try spraying canned air on film, turn on a sound recorder, then once finished, hear yourself pronounce horrible cusswords at more than 100 decibels over the film flying from your hands into a pool of oil & dust.