Sep 25, 2009
How to Clean Old 35mm Slides
It pays to maintain cleanliness within yourself and your surroundings all the time. This way, you keep a healthy lifestyle free from dust and dirt.
Being clean also applies in using electronic devices. As these gadgets contain highly sensitive parts, they need to be free from tiny particles as often as possible.
Take for example your old slides and slide scanner. When working with them, the first important thing you have to do is to make sure that they’re clean. And it’s not just about checking them visually but really making an effort to take off the dust and dirt that may have built up.
You may have kept some old slides at home or you may have discovered some of your parents’ old slides and you’d like to have a copy of them. You can possibly do so through the help of a slide scanner which will allow you to save images on your computer and have them printed.
If the slides you’ll be scanning have a slide carrier, it may be difficult to clean the entire slide. What you should do then is to first peal the cardboard carrier apart, remove the film and clean it.
Now as to what materials are ideal for cleaning, you can use a very soft cloth. For most slides that have dust, you can just do light brushing strokes. Do not scrub on it.
There are also cloths specially made for cleaning photographic films. These include the anti-static micro fiber Tiger cloth and Fellow Perfect Clean cloth. Being ultra soft, they are comfortable to the hands and perfect for use on slides which are very sensitive.
A soft and clean brush is also helpful. You can choose an artist brush with very soft bristles to loosen and remove those dust particles.
You may also use liquid film cleaners. Some popular brands are the Kodak film cleaner, Rexton, EDWAL and PEC-12. The Kodak cleaner has heptane and tifluoroethane, Rexton is an acid free cleaner, the EDWAL is an anti-stat cleaner while the PEC or Photograhic Emulsion Cleaner is a non-water based film and print cleaner.
When using liquid cleaners, just pour a small on a cotton or soft cloth and gently wipe on the slide or negative. Use only gentle strokes with very light pressure. You wouldn’t want to scratch and damage your films, would you? If you see cotton fibers left on the film, just blow them off using a compressed photographic dust.
It’s important to remember never to use water or water based cleaner for cleaning your slides. Other alternatives are naphtha and pure alcohol.
If you think you have cleaned your slides well from loose particles and debris but during scanning you discovered there still remains some dust particles, don’t worry as you can still do additional cleaning on your computer. Through the software that came with your slide scanner, you will be able to get rid of dust and scratches through the Digital Ice process, for example. This feature normally makes use of infra red to clean your films and slides.