Printfile Sleeves are Scratching my Negatives

foggie

foggie

the foggiest
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Sep 11, 2007
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I noticed that my negatives have tiny scratches on them. They are not always straight lines and are more present at the end of the negative that gets slid into the sleeve first. The more times i take them in and out of the sleeve the more scratches appear.

Does this happen to everyone? How can I prevent this?
 
I don't know if it's a hardening fixer or not. I am using the always-available ilford rapidfix. Should I think about switching to another one?
 
Some films don't require a hardening fixer; others do. Hardeners are kind of icky so I use non-hardening fixers where possible. Read the datasheet from your film manufacturer to find out.
 
I've never had that happen and I never use hardening fixer. You must be certain the film is spotlessly clean before inserting in the pages, however, because dust on the film will be pushed around by the sleeve as the film is pushed into or out of the sleeve and that will scratch film.
 
Yah, Chris,I maybe should be wiping down my negatives with an antistatic cloth before I insert them. (Especially since I live in a very, very, VERY dusty city.) I'll do that next time and see how it turns out.

semilog, i've heard that all modern films (including the triX that i use) don't need it. I'll take a look though!
 
Antistatic cloth can scratch too when it picks up dust. I keep my drying room spotlessly clean and use canned air to remove dust that still gets on the film (absolute cleanliness is impossible)
 
sterile environment is impossible for me right now. I do have one of those hand-powered blowers that removes dust quite well.

Can I clean an anti-static cloth?
 
I've had exactly the same experience with printfile sleeves. That's why I've switched to glassine sleeves. Some types of film appear to be scratched more easily. In my case, Ilford Delta100 was the worst affected. Luckily, those hairline scratches don't show on the print with a diffuser enlarger. A condenser does reveal them (I have both types of light sources).
 
Bumping this because I've been wondering why all my color film has been getting scratched up beyond use in some cases. At first I thought it might be the 8 year expired Portra I was using being touchy, or my Lloyd acting up, or even dust film canisters. I decided to do a simple test.

I just shot a NEW roll of Superia 200, developed it myself, dried it in my bathroom (slightly steamy is very effective at eliminating dust for me.) I then scanned the film and found it to be totally scratch free as well as free of dust specks thanks to some air bulb action.

So next I took a PRINTFILE brand sleeve out of the plastic package that they came in and slid the aforementioned negative into the sleeve. I waited a few seconds then removed the negative. Even just holding it up to a lamp I could already see scratches. I rescanned and it was totally ****ed up just like many of my past color negatives have been.

"Ok," I thought "maybe it could be the scissors I'm using leaving debris on the ends of the film, or some dust is in the sleeve somehow that I can blow out." So I went ahead and cleaned off my scissors. I also wiped down the outside of the sleeve, and repeatedly blew air through the inside of the sleeve. I carefully cleaned off both ends of a newly cut negative to make sure it was clean before entering the sleeve. After inserting this negative into the sleeve and removing it it too was now scratched and visibly damaged when scanned.

I use the same sleeves for my B&W negatives (Tri-X and HP5+)and do not usually have this problem and when I do it is to a much lesser extent. I'm not sure if it maybe C41 process doesn't use hardener or something but honestly I don't care. NEGATiVE sleeves should not damages NEGATIVES.

edit:

Films that I have experienced scratching due to PrintFile sleeves:

Fuji Superia 200 and 800
Fuji Pro 400H
Kodak Portra 160NC
Kodak Ektar 100
Kodak Tri - X (minor)
Ilford HP5+ (minor)
 
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You could always put your selects in the archival lock single sleeves. This way, the ones that you keep coming back to, to print, scan, etc. never have to slide in and out of the sleeves. Are you sure the scratches are from the sleeves and not from the plate in your camera? Sometimes, I run the film, dry and use it and don't notice a scratch until I print or scan. In this case it could be the camera and not the sleeves. Could also be reusable canisters if you use them.
 
lately I was thinking about this problem myself.
I think the clear filing pages put a lot more pressure on the film and on dust.
maybe the opaque, paper-style pages (glassine) allow for a freer movement and the dust particles are not pushed so hard against the film during insertion/removal?
 
How are you storing your Printfile sleeves? Because, like Chris, I've never had this problem, and I've been using 'em for decades.

Have you contacted Printfile? Perhaps with a sleeve sample?

Cheers.

R.
 
I have determined my solution!

Side lock film sleeves from Archival Methods for individual negatives which are then inserted into PrintFile Ultima sleeves so I can store them in a binder. I might keep using the regular PrintFile sleeves for black and white if I test them and find them to not destroy negatives. Unprotected color negs will, however, never come into direct contact with a PrintFile product again.
 
I think, almost three years later, I've finally solved the problem. It was not that the drying time was too short or too long. It wasn't fixer. It wasn't water and it wasn't even room dust nor was it faulty batches of printfile sleeves.

It was my scissors! I was this whole time using some flimsy, terrible scissors which weren't making clean cuts and spreading dust everywhere. (That's my theory anyway.) Sliding negs cut with crappy scissors was a pain -- they'd catch the sleeves constantly as I slid them in and made a hard crunching noise as they pressed against the plastic. As soon as I changed my scissors to some new Gingher fabric cutters the problem disappeared. The smoothly go into their printfiles and no harsh grinding noises or scratched negs.
 
foggie said:
I think, almost three years later, I've finally solved the problem. It was not that the drying time was too short or too long. It wasn't fixer. It wasn't water and it wasn't even room dust nor was it faulty batches of printfile sleeves.

It was my scissors! I was this whole time using some flimsy, terrible scissors which weren't making clean cuts and spreading dust everywhere. (That's my theory anyway.) Sliding negs cut with crappy scissors was a pain -- they'd catch the sleeves constantly as I slid them in and made a hard crunching noise as they pressed against the plastic. As soon as I changed my scissors to some new Gingher fabric cutters the problem disappeared. The smoothly go into their printfiles and no harsh grinding noises or scratched negs.
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Aaaargh! Thanks for the update. VERY valuable information.

Cheers,

R.
 
jordanstarr said:
You could always put your selects in the archival lock single sleeves. This way, the ones that you keep coming back to, to print, scan, etc. never have to slide in and out of the sleeves. Are you sure the scratches are from the sleeves and not from the plate in your camera? Sometimes, I run the film, dry and use it and don't notice a scratch until I print or scan. In this case it could be the camera and not the sleeves. Could also be reusable canisters if you use them.
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Where do you get these sleeves?
 
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