Printable View
This is admittedly my first foray into polaroid and LF, but a search of the arch ives has not illuminated me yet. When I coat my type 52 prints, the coater seems to deposit a fair amount of grit and fiber onto the print. The dust (or whateve r) is deposited by the coater; the prints are coated seconds after development. Multiple coater sweeps (at varying speeds) have had no effect on the amount of g rit on my prints.
How can I avoid this? (it's rather unsightly)
First thing, you do not say whether, you are getting these problems from the very first time you use the wee coating stick thing, or it is after a number of uses. If it is from the first use, it is probably defective, or has already been opened before it was needed, so, that should cover the problems with grit. With the problems with the fibres it is probably the same, unless they are only apparent after a number of uses, in which case it is probably wear and tear. However, you should try types 51 and 55, as you can expose for the negative, and only have to use the Sodium Sulphite solution (check the literature in the data sheets section of customer support on polaroids' website, I am not too sure if it is sulphite or -ate). Please note this information may not be too acurate as I too am relativly new to LF, and only have experience with the ruinously expensive type 55 (about #44.99).
I'll be following the answers to this thread with interest because I have the same trouble. It happens with a fresh coater, right out of the tube and makes a dusty mess all over the surface of the print. One thing I've tried (with varying success) is to wipe some of the excess coater fluid off on some clean, lint free surface before coating the print. The coaters always seem to have way too much goop in them the first time used and seems to attract more lint. Type 52 is beautiful film, but this aspect is really annoying.
After a few more tries, it seems that by doing a large number of passes (10-20), the final passes being extremely slow, I can eliminate 95% of the crud. Not perfect, but better.
This is the procedure that I use for coating Type 52. I carry a small book, it is a hardcover book made for making notes in that you can find at most book stores and is a little larger than the polaroid prints. After exposing and processing in the field as normal I put the print is this book for safe keeping. I then coat the prints later when I am in a clean enviroment with a table and no wind. In my experience you could wait several days or weeks before coating without any bad side effects.