Wet scanning with baby oil

[Yaakov Asher Sinclair]

I've heard that you can use baby oil to wet scan negatives on a flatbed scanner. I would very much like to hear from anyone who has been successful doing this
Many thanks!

[Bruce Watson]

Don't do this. It's not worth it to save a few (very few) bucks. Use a mounting fluid designed for the job, that gives you consistent optical properties, has the right viscosity to fill in the scratches, is perfectly clean so it doesn't introduce crap into the scan. Baby oil isn't any of these things. And, clean up after using baby oil is bound to be a nightmare, especially for your film.

Don't do this.

[Ralph Barker]

Beyond what Hogarth mentions, I'd be concerned that the baby-oil scans would look, well, infantile. ;-)

[JohnnyV]

I second what Hogarth writes!

Don't do it!

Mounting fluid is an easy clean-up - just let the fluid evaporite off the film.

Using baby oil is like dipping your film in butter.

[paulr]

mmmmm, butter.

[Graeme Hird]

By all means, cover yourself with baby oil before scanning. Just don't let it get near your film. :)

[Chad Jarvis]

Maybe if you fry it up with some shallots...

[Yaakov Asher Sinclair]

Okay, not one positive response.
My first choice would also be scanner fluid. However, Aztec don't have an agent here in Israel yet, and so far I've drawn a blank trying to find other scanner fluids here.
So to re-phrase the question, is there anything that I can use that's commonly available as a substitute for scanner fluid?
Many thanks to all!

[Bruce Watson]

Surely you can find a graphic arts supply house in Isreal somewhere - somebody is suppling the newspapers and magazines publishers. You can always call them and ask where they get their supplies. Or find a pre-press service bureau and either buy though them, or ask them for their supplier. In either case, ask for someone in the respective company's purchasing department. The people who actually cut the purchase orders are the ones who know where to buy stuff.

If that path leads nowhere, consider looking to Europe. SDS, for example:


http://www.sds-gmbh.com/index_en.html (http://www.sds-gmbh.com/index_en.html)

This is the same set of products marketed in North America by Prazio. Good stuff.