[filmscanners] Re: Cleaning slides

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

If the slide sleeves were PVC or vinyl, there is a good chance the
plasticizers have migrated out.  It is an oily somewhat viscose liquid
which can indeed leave a residue or droplets on the slides, and it
doesn't evaporate very quickly, if ever.  Today's archival sleeves are
made from polyethylene usually which is more stable.

Most everyone will probably suggest a liquid called PEC, which I haven't
ever used.  I usually use a warm water bath with some photoflow or other
liquid detergent and a chamois or soft fingers and gently rub; of course
this involves removing them from their mounts. Sometimes if it is on the
non-emulsion side, I will use pure 99% isopropyl alcohol, with a chamois
or lintless wipe.

Art

david_bookbinder@sprynet.com wrote:

> I have several sheets of 35mm Ektachrome slides I recently unearthed after
> more than twenty years of storage in plastic sleeves (themselves stored in a
> sealed cardboard box, along with a lot of prints and negatives). Almost all
> of the slides are covered, on the emulsion side, with dozens of small
> droplets of liquid. At first I thought this was water, perhaps from humidity
> which managed to penetrate the box during a basement flood a couple of years
> ago, but as these droplets don't seem to evaporate when the slides are
> exposed to air I'm wondering if they are some kind of exudate from the
> sleeves themselves.
>
> I would like to save these slides. The liquid does wipe off with a
> microfiber cloth, and the couple of slides I tried this with came more or
> less clean. (There is also some snowflake-pattern pitting of the emulsion,
> but this appears to be unrelated to the droplets.) I'm sure, however, that
> this is likely not the best way to clean these slides, and I'm wondering if
> any of you can suggest a better method.
>
> TIA,
>
> More anon,
> - David
> David J. Bookbinder [david_bookbinder@sprynet.com]
>


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