How to get dust off film for scanning.

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:13:59 +1200, Eric Stevens wrote:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.
....
Hi Eric,

Probably the problem started long ago, with the way the slides were stored.

It's been some years since I did much slide scanning. I found that even
with relatively clean slides, it took me 30 seconds or even more to remove
the couple of flecks of dust from each slide. It's faster to clone out a
few specs in Photoshop than to go back and do a re-scan.

There is no easy solution - though if you have many slides, it may be worth
buying a scanner, such as a Nikon with ICE technology, which uses a
separate IR beam to detect, and remove the dust. If your budget is limited
(whose isn't), buy a used scanner on eBay, and sell it again when you're
done.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com

Eric Stevens wrote in
:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

May seem like blasphemy, but actually polishing both sides of the negative
with a soft-lint free cloth, then using compressed air blasts seems to work
very well.

On Sat, 5 Jun 2010 22:33:52 -0700, Mike Russell
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:13:59 +1200, Eric Stevens wrote:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.
...
Hi Eric,

Probably the problem started long ago, with the way the slides were stored.

It's been some years since I did much slide scanning. I found that even
with relatively clean slides, it took me 30 seconds or even more to remove
the couple of flecks of dust from each slide. It's faster to clone out a
few specs in Photoshop than to go back and do a re-scan.

There is no easy solution - though if you have many slides, it may be worth
buying a scanner, such as a Nikon with ICE technology, which uses a
separate IR beam to detect, and remove the dust. If your budget is limited
(whose isn't), buy a used scanner on eBay, and sell it again when you're
done.

Two points.

My problem is with film, not slides (slides are yet to come).

My scanner is an Epson V700 which has a double lens system - one to
focus on the image and the other to focus on the surface to detect
dirt and scratches. The V700 comes with ICE technology. See
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/c...p?oid=63056499



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:29:30 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Eric Stevens writes:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

At least at one time you could buy static brushes with a small bit of
radioactive isotope built in (electroplated polonium, as I recall). The
radioactivity was weak but sufficient to discharge static electricity at very
close range, so as you passed the brush over the film, the isotope discharged
any static build-up, making it easier to remove the dust for good.

I don't know if these are still sold. People tend to be more fearful now than
they once were, so perhaps not (although there was nothing dangerous about
these brushes unless you broke the isotope out of the brush and ate it, and
perhaps not even then).

Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of doing that except for the
fact that today (in New Zealand) is a public holiday.



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 01:03:31 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2010-06-05 21:13:59 -0700, Eric Stevens said:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

Kinetronics has several tools for anti-static film cleaning at
different price points. See if any of these will help;

http://kinetronics.com/store/ministat.html
http://kinetronics.com/store/kinestat_prod.html
http://kinetronics.com/store/kse.html
http://www.kinetronics.com/store/200...ilmCleaner.pdf

Now thats a good suggestion. I won't do it your way but I will rig up
a pair of antistatic brushes designed to clean vinyl LP records.
http://www.productwiki.com/carbon-fi...leaning-brush/

Second thoughts. These brushes use carbon fibres. Am I introducing a
scratch problem? I don't think so. Vinyl records are likely to be
vulnerable to scratch damage also. Still I will tread cautiously.



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 03:45:55 -0700 (PDT), ransley
wrote:

On Jun 5, 11:13*pm, Eric Stevens wrote:
For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.

Eric Stevens

It isnt winter where humidity could be 10%, Ive scanned at low
humidity with no issues, 60% is actualy high.

That was my point.

Its dirt and dust years of poor handling and storage

It's film, which has been out of its plastic sleeve only for scanning.



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 10:52:58 -0500, "George Anthony"
wrote:



"Eric Stevens" wrote in message
.. .
For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

I don't doubt you have dust on your slides (nearly impossible not to) but,
if you haven't all ready, I'd make sure the scanner itself is dust free.
Between the slides and the scanner, you're talking a lot of dust possible.

As far as I can tell, everything is clean.


--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---



Eric Stevens

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:05:36 -0500, Rich wrote:

Eric Stevens wrote in
:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

May seem like blasphemy, but actually polishing both sides of the negative
with a soft-lint free cloth, then using compressed air blasts seems to work
very well.

I wouldn't use the air out of an ordinary oil lubricated compressor.
Probably you are thinking of 'canned air' which is not actually air at
all. Depending on the 'air', this can cause a static electricity
problem, but its worth a shot. Many thanks.



Eric Stevens

On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:24:03 +1200, Eric Stevens
wrote:

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010 01:03:31 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2010-06-05 21:13:59 -0700, Eric Stevens said:

For my sins I have recently been attempting to use my Epson V700
scanner to digitize some 35mm Fuji negatives.

I find that no matter how I try I cannot get rid of dust. The best
examples are barely tolerable and the worst look like a blizzard.

I've been using various combinations of brush, bellow and conductive
cloth but nothing seems to work. In fact, I think my efforts are
making things worse for me by building up an electrostatic charge on
everything around me. Its not that the atmosphere is dry at the
moment. We are just seeing the last of a tropical depression and the
humidity has dropped to 60%.

What am I doing wrong or, better still, what should I be doing right?

Thanks in advance to all and sundry.



Eric Stevens

Kinetronics has several tools for anti-static film cleaning at
different price points. See if any of these will help;

http://kinetronics.com/store/ministat.html
http://kinetronics.com/store/kinestat_prod.html
http://kinetronics.com/store/kse.html
http://www.kinetronics.com/store/200...ilmCleaner.pdf

Now thats a good suggestion. I won't do it your way but I will rig up
a pair of antistatic brushes designed to clean vinyl LP records.
http://www.productwiki.com/carbon-fi...leaning-brush/

Second thoughts. These brushes use carbon fibres. Am I introducing a
scratch problem? I don't think so. Vinyl records are likely to be
vulnerable to scratch damage also. Still I will tread cautiously.

Just using a single antistatic brush makes a vast improvement.
Virtually all traces of general dust have now gone. Unfortunately I am
still dealing with remnant hairs from our ancient Balinese cat who
died at the age of 21 about 18 months ago. All the brush seems to do
with these is align them. So far the 'heal' tool in NX2 seems to be
able to deal with them.



Eric Stevens