Cleaning Slides prior to scanning - suggestions?

[RicardoD]

I just ordered a refurbished Minolta Dual Scan IV via ebay ($220 including shipping) and the long term purpose of this scanner is for my home developed B&W film.

However, I do have a short term project to scan 300 or so color slides. I did not have the budget for an ICE scanner (Nikon Coolscan V ED $550) so I want to clean the slides as much as possible prior to scan.

I found the following via google for fingerprint cleaning:
"expert advice on cleaning slides"

I do have a small airbrush compressor that I can use to blow off dust and I also am purchasing a Kinetronics StaticWisk (hand held anti-static brushes for film) which was another suggestion I found via photo.net.

Another suggestion I have read about was to wipe the slides with a q-tip dipped in photo-flo although I don't want to drag a particle acrosss a slide and scratch it.

Anyone else have some tips to share?

 

[normjackson]

Maybe give PEC-12 a go :
http://www.adorama.com/CHPEC12K.html?searchinfo=PEC-12&item_no=1

 

[Honu-Hugger]

A "Zero-Stat" gun, typically used to reduce static on vinyl records, is very beneficial both in the darkroom and when cleaning slides prior to scanning -- you'll wonder how you ever got along without one 🙂. If you use a burr grinder to grind your coffee buy two; zapping the hopper after grinding is the only way I've found to keep the ground coffee from leaping all over the counter top when I first open the lid 😀.

 

[Sparrow]

I found the big problem very small dust particles, just 2-3 microns, that seemed to attach to slides and negs after cleaning, I have the dImage 5400, keeping the scanner covered when not in use helped, but in exasperation I eventually sprayed the inside of the scanners case with spray mount the scans have been 10x better since but I suspect there may be warranty issues if that applies (I took extreme care not to get overspray on any of the internal parts)
Take real care using the airbrush compressor as without filters and an aggregator it will have a proportion of both water vapour and lubrication oils in its output I don’t see it would damage a slide but used regularly on lenses or scanner sensors.

 

[Sparrow]

. If you use a burr grinder to grind your coffee buy two; zapping the hopper after grinding is the only way I've found to keep the ground coffee from leaping all over the counter top when I first open the lid .

Inspired............

 

[RicardoD]

Sparrow, It's not clear to me what you sprayed inside your minolta scanner. Can you clarify please?

BTW, my airbrush compressor does have a moisture trap plus an additional Paasche moisture/dust trap in the last inch of hose. Hopefully those two filters in combination will take care moisture, dust and oils.

 

[dmr]

I found the following via google for fingerprint cleaning:
"expert advice on cleaning slides"

I might respectfully disagree with most of this. It seems to me like a lot of hassle just to de-dust slides.

Since I got the scanner last summer (K-M SD VI), I've scanned a lot of slides, many of which are old and have not been stored under the best conditions.

What I've been doing is this, both for slides and negatives, and it works quite well, for me, anyway ...

1. If there's visible dirt and dust, brush it off with the dust brush.

2. If there's visible fingerprints or other really grody stuff, first use rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip, and if it's really hard, use the Delta-1 C-100 Total Emulsion Cleaner. At first I was really shy about using alcohol on them, but the people here assured me it would not dissolve the emulsion or anything nasty like that.

3. Put the slide or negative in the carrier, then, whether it looks like it needs it or not, give it a gentle blow-off with {dare I say it?} canned air.

This seems to work for me quite well. If there are some remaining specks, they can be fixed in Photoshop, or, if they are obviously visible, with another round of the dust brush and/or the canned air.

 

[Sparrow]

The inside of the pressed steel outer cover, the darkrooms at college in the 70’s had beeswax strips on the walls to trap dust I was hoping to do the same thing inside the scanner, and it seemed to work. I did clean it internal parts at the same time. Take care with the compressor try a blast on a white cotton shirt for half a minute to check.
Kind regards Stewart

PS the scanner was second-hand, so I may have had an extreme example but life’s too short to spend it in Photoshop!!

 

[RicardoD]

Spanner,

Ok I get it now. You sprayed on "spray mount adhesive" to act as a dust collector on the inside surface of your scanner housing shell. Thanks for the tip. Not sure I will go to that extreme at first but as time goes on I will be sure to post my observations. This is why I love this forum.

 

[Patman]

May think i'm crazy but for the last 40 years i've bee wiping them down gently with alcohol and then using a Static master brush, No problems and no slide deterioration also use on my film strips.

 

[Flinor]

An anti static brush, sometimes a rocket blower if there's visible dust and Pec-12 with Pecpads works fine for me. I use a Nikon Coolscan with a lot of Kodachromes so I can't use Ice,

 

[RicardoD]

Flinor,

You can't use ice on Kodachromes? That's the majority of what I have to scan.

 

[normjackson]

Flinor,
You can't use ice on Kodachromes? That's the majority of what I have to scan.

The Minolta Scan Elite 5400 Version 1 is reputed to work OK with Kodachrome with ICE :
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/reviews/elitecoolscan.htm
Maybe connected with diffuse light source so maybe flatbeds tend to do OK too.

From the www.asf.com site :
Super Coolscan 9000 ED DIGITAL ICE4 Advanced Technology contains a special optimized version of DIGITAL ICE Technology called "DIGITAL ICE Professional Technology", which provides more robust compatibility to work with KODACHROME film types.

So Nikon have addressed the problem in their top of the range scanner.

 

[Andrew Touchon]

I just ordered a refurbished Minolta Dual Scan IV via ebay ($220 including shipping) and the long term purpose of this scanner is for my home developed B&W film.

However, I do have a short term project to scan 300 or so color slides. I did not have the budget for an ICE scanner (Nikon Coolscan V ED $550) so I want to clean the slides as much as possible prior to scan.

I found the following via google for fingerprint cleaning:
"expert advice on cleaning slides"

I do have a small airbrush compressor that I can use to blow off dust and I also am purchasing a Kinetronics StaticWisk (hand held anti-static brushes for film) which was another suggestion I found via photo.net.

Another suggestion I have read about was to wipe the slides with a q-tip dipped in photo-flo although I don't want to drag a particle acrosss a slide and scratch it.

Anyone else have some tips to share?

I am in the middle of a project scanning old slides and negatives, many of them 40 years old and not in pristine condition. The following free software has worked like magic repairing dust spots and scratches and has saved me countless hours that would have been spent using the Photoshop tools to make the repairs. http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html 😛 😛 😛

 

[Flinor]

Ricardo,

As I understand it, K-14 is an additive developing process that adds color during development leaving different colors at microscopically different thicknesses. ICE reads these different thicknesses as scratches. I may be all wet but using a Coolscan V and using ICE on Kodachrome or even silver based black and white noticeably softens the image.

 

[sf]

I don't have any really nasty slides, but my tools for cleaning what I have are :

lens wipe - nice soft one with some fuzziness to grab dust/filth and free it
can-o-air

works for me. When things get really nasty, you might be well off with the PEC 12, though I have been known to wash my negs/slides under water. Don't do that.

 

[dmr]

As I understand it, K-14 is an additive developing process that adds color during development leaving different colors at microscopically different thicknesses. ICE reads these different thicknesses as scratches. I may be all wet but using a Coolscan V and using ICE on Kodachrome or even silver based black and white noticeably softens the image.

The way I understand it anyway, all from various sources, is that ICE uses a fourth color channel, infrared. Color negative film and Ektachrome type slide film will be normally transparent to infrared, and therefore anything that's opaque to IR must be dust or irregularities.

They tell me that silver B&W film and Kodachrome film are both somewhat opaque to infrared, and therefore won't work with it.

That's what "they" tell me, anyway. 🙂

I do find Kodachrome a very fascinating process. I actually printed out the explanation of how it works and the processing steps and I look it over when I need something to do. 🙂