Re: filmscanners: Negative cleaning

[Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>]

A few ideas.  Someone mentioned the anti-static wipes, there is also 
something called Kimwipes which are for darkroom use.  There is also 
made a anti-static brush (although I'm not recommending it due to 
radiation issues, (which created a long debate before, so I'm not going 
into it again)).  One can buy an inexpensive air compressor and nozzle, 
one can increase humidity in your work area which both causes dust to 
become heavier and drop more and also make static levels drop, one can 
use a slight positive air pressure which makes air flow out of the room 
rather than in (using a fan which is designed to pre-filter the air it 
is bringing in.  Or, one can buy a digital ICE or FARE (Canon) scanner, 
which reduces the problem by using an IR channel scan.

Art

Jim Sharp wrote:

> I recently purchased a Minolta Scan Dual and so far, I'm happy with it's
> performance. I've been trying to scan a number of old negatives however
> and am having a terrible time getting them clean enough to not require
> extensive touchup with Photoshop.
> 
> I've even tried scanning some negatives immediately after getting them
> back from processing. Again, they show very noticeable dust...
> Obviously, my office isn't a "clean room", but anything to make this
> task easier would be appreciated.
>  
> Does anyone have any suggestions? 
> 
> --
> Jim