Cleaning old slides

[Kevin Caulfield]

My wife just discovered a box of old Kodachrome and Agfa slides. They are old family photos, 30 to 35 years old, and most of them have the appearance of being scrartched. Closer inspection reveals that it is probably more dirt than scratches. I intend to try cleaning them and then printing them. My idea was just to use wetting agent like Agepon which I use when processing B&W film, and gently wipe them with my fingers. I'll try first with a less important pic. Any ideas on what else to use, or whether this should work or not would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Dave Parker]

Don't touch the emulsion with your fingers at all, there are several different emulsion cleaners on the market designed to do this very thing, Omega Satter makes one that we used to use in the photo shop I worked at, unfortunately non of them are 100% effective we found in actual use, but they will clean some of the dirt up that may make it easier to scan or view them..but again, don't touch the emulsion with your fingers, even with solution on your finger tips you still run the risk of depositing oils on the slide, we used to use the special q tips designed for cleaning tape heads.

Dave

 

[gbroadbridge]

Isopropyl Alcohol followed by something like photo flo or Ilfotol works great for me.

Kodak have an information sheet, see http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/cis145/cis145.pdf


Graham.

 

[Neal]

Dear Kevin,

Check out PEC pads and cleaner.

Neal Wydra

 

[modafoto]

Isopropyl Alcohol

Me too! I use this a lot for cleaning old negs and slides before scanning or copying.

Morten

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.
Graham (seeing you're in Oz), any idea where I could buy isopropyl alcohol?
Thanks.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Kevin,

A little goes a long way - I purchased 2 x 4oz bottles from 3M over a decade ago and they are still going stong. It was sold as a 3M cleaning kit with two bottles , wipes and lint free cleaning cloths.

Perhaps call 3M, and ask about Computer cleaning solutions - it was used to clean the heads in disk and tape drives.

I'll ask my local pharmacy about it too - he's used to me asking for strange chemicals that would raise eyebrows elsewhere.

Graham.

 

[Steve Roberts]

I use carbon tetrachloride, which, I am told, also kills fungus that so often affects old slides.

Steve