KAMI wet mount scanner kits

[Kirk Gittings]

Sandy. How hot is the water and how long do you wash it? That scares the crap out of me because I have accidentally done that a couple of times over the years because of an odd plumbing situation and the emulsion swelled and came off.

[sanking]

Sandy. How hot is the water and how long do you wash it? That scares the crap out of me because I have accidentally done that a couple of times over the years because of an odd plumbing situation and the emulsion swelled and came off.

Kirk,

I understand your concern. When I started to fluid mount I ruined a negative by soaking it in negative cleaning fluid. The directions clearly stated, "rub the cleaning fluid on the negative", but I figured, well, why not soak the fellow. Big mistake!

Back to the question. You don't need high temperature to clean a negative fluid mounted with an oil such as Johnson Baby Oil. I use temperature of about 100º F, with a mild liquid dishwashing degreaser, and a bit of hand agitation. After a couple of minutes all of the oil is gone, then I give the negative a rinse in running water of 2-3 minutes and hang to dry. I have never had a problem with emulsion swelling working this way, and so far I have worked with FP4+, TRI-X 320, TMY, BPF 200 and Tmax-100 and Tmax-400.

With the Kami fluid you just wipe off the excess solvent and hang to dry. But, as I mentined, if the scan takes a long time the Kami fluid may evaporate, so for very long scans an oil works better.

Sandy

[PMahoney]

Thanks Sandy, I'm going to give that a try before purchasing a kit. Thanks for the advice.

Peter

[Ron Marshall]

Sandy, what type of tape do you use to tape down the film?

The reason I ask is concern over sticky glue residue on the film after the tape is removed.

[sanking]

Sandy, what type of tape do you use to tape down the film?

The reason I ask is concern over sticky glue residue on the film after the tape is removed.

OK, I fear some folks are going to jump all over me for this, but here goes.

First, I tried the special tape sold by Aztek that is supposed to prevent the sticky glue residue. It did not. OK, maybe I got the wrong tape, but in any event I decided to try a few tapes from the commerce and settled on blue masking tape. It works fine, is very inexpensive readily available, and does not leave residue.

Sandy

[Ron Marshall]

Thanks Sandy, a simple economical solution.

[sanking]

Thanks Sandy, a simple economical solution.

Ron,

BTW, in an earlier message I suggested that you use 1mm thick glass for the fluid mount glass carrier. However, you may want to try the slightly thicker 2mm/ 3/32" (=0.85") window glass first since it is much more rigid than the very thin 1mm glass, and depending on your scanner, may actually place the negative at a more optimum position than the thinner glass. As I mentioned in another post, I tested with glass of both thickness and found no difference in results between the 1mm and 2mm thick glass. That being the case, the use of the 2mm thick glass is much more advantageous since it much sturdier. I broke several pieces of 1mm thick glass just by picking it up in the wrong place.


Sandy

[Ron Marshall]

I'll do test scans 1mm above and below the negative carrier height to see if it makes any difference with my 4990, probably not.

If not the window glass should be cheap. Thanks again Sandy.

[Michael Heald]

Hello! How much does the quality of the glass affect the scans? Best regards.

Mike

[sanking]

Hello! How much does the quality of the glass affect the scans? Best regards.

Mike

Plain soda lime float glass works fine for me. There are speciality glass that have better transmission, especially in the UV wavelengths, but I don't believe they would provide much improvement in this application.

Sandy