LaserSoft Imaging

does anyone have advice on cleaning negative film before scanning? most of my film is aging. there are finger prints and mild mold in many places on the film that even ICE cannot fully adjust for.

regards
Gregory

Gregory,

To clean my old negatives and transparencies I use PEC-12 Archival Photographic Emulsion Cleaner in conjunction with PEC Pads. I purchased a 4oz bottle in Canada for approx. C$20.00. My local photofinisher swears by this product and says 4oz should last "years".

It is manufactured by Photographic Solution, 7 Granston Way, Buxxards Bay, MA 02532 USA.

Their product is at:

http://www.photosol.com/tech.htm

Hope this helps,

Mike

I've just finished washing a bunch of century-old negatives.. grime and oxidation and mystery stuff...

I simply soaked them in 65 deg water with Photoflow, squeeged them with my fingers. Some of them required two soaking/drying cycles.

Finger-squeegee is a long-established process. much safer than silicon rubber because you can feel what you're doing. Negatives are tougher than most folks know. The results are fabulous.

PEC-12 was a great tip. I purchased it along with the paper and it works well (even for many non-film things) but stains/marks still remain on the film.

I've never heard of Photoflo but I'll definitely give it a try. what dilution are you using? 200:1? how long do you soak the film for?


regards
Gregory

I tried PEC 12 and found it left a residue on my film. So I use "ethol" Film Cleaner and find it to be better. I still use the PEC Pads though.

I put the ethol in to a small spray bottle and mist the Pec Pads very lightly. Almost like a perfume sample. Kinda spray it in the air and waft the pad through the mist. You can clean and put an anti-static coat on a couple of strips or use it to clean five or six transparencies this way.

Photoflow is a water softener. By adding it to your final rinse water you will have fewer water spots or streaking (hopefully you never have any)

My darkroom water is set at 70 degrees. If you are re-washing film I'd do it just like the first time.

I'd load the strips on to a film reel. Drop them into a film washer with water circulating for about 20 minutes at 70 degrees. Finally I have a stainless steel tank that holds two 35mm or one 120 nikkor film reels and fill it with hot water. Probably about 100 degrees and I add two drops of PhotoFlow to that.

Film reels are then dipped 1 to 2 seconds in that tank. (Many years ago I watched a really good AP photographer wash his film completely in the hotest tap water he could get for 3 minutes and then hit the frame he wanted to print with a hair drier at two inches. Since the emulsion didn't slide off or catch fire I've figured that dipping my film quickly in hot water and photoflow would make that final rinse dry faster and cleaner. 15,000 rolls of film later I still beleive it) Remove the film from the reel and squeege between two fingers using a white Bounty towel and hang to dry.

That's about it for the best way I know to re-wash to clean film.

You mention stains though. If they are chemical. This may not be enough. You may want to go back one step further and ...

1. Wash the film for about 5 minutes (this is just a prebath to soften the emulsion)

2. Re-Fix the film in Hypo or Rapid Fix what ever you would normally fix with.

3. Go through the wash proceedure mentioed above.

Good luck.

Happy New Year

Jb.