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Thread: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    For cleaning film holders, I like a painter's tack rag - the beeswax impregnated cheesecloths. Vacuums sound nice, but the exhaust is - an air blower which raises dust. And hopefully there's more dust in your environment for the vacuum exhaust to raise than in the film holders!

    There are no perfect cloths!

    BTZS hoods are nice - I have a couple and like them for car and cool weather use. But they're almost impossible when you stick your sweaty head into one. Glasses, ground glass, everything fogs up immediately. A black T-shirt works pretty well, as does home-made.

    Ebony makes a cloth that is the best but has drawbacks, especially with cameras with no cold shoe. This hood is a compendium and camera shelter, you can shoot in light rain with it. But it requires a cold shoe, the Ebony lens shade clip, and the Ebony GG protector, and you can't use it without the clip and protector. And all this is pricey.

    They also make a very light cloth that isn't expensive, but it is small, 4x5 and maybe 5x7 only. It's very, very light and that's great when you're carrying it, less so when it's windy.

    I like my old Gnass cloth as well as any - not too light or too heavy, provides some padding to help hold everything in place in the pack, and something very similar could be easily made.

    So... If you only have one, a black T-shirt or a home made cloth. If you have the luxury of two, a BTZS for non-sweaty situations, and then a home made cloth for everything else. If you know you're going to have to shoot in adverse conditions, the Ebony cloth is hard to beat even if you add a cold shoe.

    The ideal cloth, assuming that you're willing to attach a cold shoe to the front standard, would be a home-made cloth, soft and relatively thick like the Gnass, maybe just a inch or three larger, with a pocket for a piece of rigid plastic or light wood to function like the Ebony GG protector. Then you could use it with the Ebony lens shade clip, which is handy to flag the lens anyway, or you could use it just like a regular cloth - something you can't do with the big Ebony cloth because of the built-in "stiffeners" (hard to explain, trust me).

    Cheers, Steve

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Nov 1999
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    San Clemente, California
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    3,804

    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    Regular vacuum cleaners, like brushes, mostly take the dust out of your holder and spray it into the air, though perhaps a little further away.

    Here's what I use:

    http://www.amazon.com/3M-497AJM-Port.../dp/B00006HR5F

  3. #13

    Join Date
    May 2010
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    St. Louis, Mo.
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    3,064

    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    Here you go!


    http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM3237301602P?prdNo=3[/URL]c/s/p_10153_12605_SPM3237301602P?prdNo=3

  4. #14

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    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    Quote Originally Posted by kevs-2323668 View Post
    thanks Brian,
    John/ Lynn if you have links for the mini vac or cloths, please list. thanks!
    This was my first vac. It lasted a few years but eventually died.
    http://www.scientificsonline.com/min...9-001b2166c2c0
    The one I used these days is a 1 gallon 1.5 HP Shop Vac Hang Up(which I haven't) and the optional mini attachments. The filters work well and the dust is well contained.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  5. #15
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    Apr 2009
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    As the guy who recommended the 2" camel-hair brush, let me say this about vacuums.

    I love central vacuum systems, and never realized until we moved into our current house equipped such. I discovered its greatest value: The exhaust air exits outside the house. If I had a darkroom and a central vac attachment, I'd be happy.

    But vacuums don't often come with the fittings needed to avoid scratches, or picking up things you don't want picked up (sheets of film come to mind). It wouldn't take much of a vacuum to suck a sheet right out of a holder. I'm sure those of you who use them have learned to avoid such mishaps.

    For removing dust from a negative when going into the scanner, I use a foot-blower, which is a foot-operated bellows with a hose and nozzle. Works fine. Yes, the dust gets moved elsewhere, but usually the blower has the energy to move it far enough elsewhere not to bother me. And it doesn't accidentally latch onto things.

    But here's my issue with depending on vacuums: It takes a really, really small vacuum to sit happily inside a changing tent. I prefer approaches that I can take with me, as part of my religious routine for loading holders. The camel-hair brush is reasonable effective and works anywhere.

    But I don't slap the brush around, either. There is technique involved. I brush down slowly, so that the dust is pulled along, not launched. I brush down the holder, then I slide in the film, and then I brush down the film and the slide, and close it up. I routinely vacuum my holder loading area, which includes the inside of my changing room thingie.

    If I used a vacuum in an enclosed darkroom, it would have to be the external exhausting sort. Dust that pass right through a filter is still big enough to cause problems on film.

    Rick "brushing in controlled strokes" Denney

  6. #16
    Roger Cole's Avatar
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    Oct 2010
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    Suburbs of Atlanta
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    BTZS hood for dark cloth.

    For holder cleaning I use an anti-static lint roller I bought years ago from the old F Stops Here store - not sure what I'll do when the adhesive pads for cleaning the roller are gone, but they seem like the same stuff that's on lint rollers only in a flat pad so they may be available. I follow this procedure:

    1. I turn on the HEPA air filter in the darkroom and let it run a while.
    2. I wipe down the table in the darkroom with a damp cloth.
    3. I then clean each holder and dark slide with the anti-static roller, lay the slides and holders in separate stacks with the dark side (that will face the film) of the holders down so dust is less likely to settle on them.

    Lights out

    4. Before loading each holder I blast it with compressed air, load, and slide the holder just barely in, then I hold it with film down and tap the back sharply, then slide the holder the rest of the way in.

    Very very few dust problems.

  7. #17

    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    Steve, thanks, did not understand a lot of that, but look like good info. Links always help a lot.
    Sol-- quite expensive. Alan good price. John, better price, although your new one does not have a link.
    Rick, was going to ask you about all this again...and I will do that later. I need a small course in the brushing off holders. I'm not using a changing test. I'll just get enough holders. Also, isn't the brush just for cleaning holders before and after film is in it?
    Rog - dark cloth, it's over my head still being a newbie....

  8. #18

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    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    I vacume my holders on the kitchen table. Once the film is loaded, I put my holders in zip lock bags until use, then back in the zip locks until souping. Five 8x10 holders will fit in a Hefty storage zip lock (the one gallon size are too small) I get them from Walmart.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    Here's a link.

    http://www.ebonycamera.com/acc.html#...ocusing%20hood

    The Ebony all-weather focusing hood uses the gg protector inserted into a pocket. The lens shade clip - three items up - attaches to the gg protector in the pocket and to a "cold shoe", a non-energized flash bracket - on the front standard. The image of the lens shade clip shows the gg protector being used as a lens flag.

    Cheers, Steve

  10. #20
    Brian
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Richmond, Virginia
    Posts
    8

    Re: Dark cloth and cleaning holders question

    I travel extensively for work so can't imagine hauling a shop vac around to clean holders on location. For about 20 years I have used Kinetronics anti-static brushes which work very well. Then once loaded I keep each individual holder in a zip lock bag until I am ready to expose film. Once shot the holder goes right back in the zip lock bag.
    Dust problems are nil.

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