Kevin Crisp
10-Dec-2007, 09:43
This forum is rife with ideas to eliminate dust during the film loading process. There are so many suggestions that probably work that you really can't incorporate them all into your loading routine. So I hesitate to add one more to the list, except that it is so simple and seems so far to have worked so well under worst case conditions that I thought I would mention it.
I have a new Canham 4X10. So I need to cut down my Tri-X. I took a sheet out of a loaded 8X10 holder and cut it in two on a conventional bladed paper cutter. I held the sheet down on the bed of the cutter with a piece of terrycloth, which should have loaded the film with dust. I punched a notch in the half of the 8X10 that needed it, then slid it into the holder. I took the holder (all of this in the dark, obviously) over to a running Honeywell HEPA filter machine that was running on high. (I had painted out the lights on the machine so it won't fog the film.) I slid the dark slide all the way open, then held each side of the holder directly in the air stream coming out of the Hepa machine for about 20 seconds. I then slowly put the dark slide back in while holding the film upside down in the air stream.
On the 10 sheets I exposed yesterday, I have absolutely no dust marks. None. It is always the little solitary floater bits that get you, no matter how careful you are. This seems to blow them all off. Considering that this was much handled film I was expecting problems and was pleasantly surprised.
I have a new Canham 4X10. So I need to cut down my Tri-X. I took a sheet out of a loaded 8X10 holder and cut it in two on a conventional bladed paper cutter. I held the sheet down on the bed of the cutter with a piece of terrycloth, which should have loaded the film with dust. I punched a notch in the half of the 8X10 that needed it, then slid it into the holder. I took the holder (all of this in the dark, obviously) over to a running Honeywell HEPA filter machine that was running on high. (I had painted out the lights on the machine so it won't fog the film.) I slid the dark slide all the way open, then held each side of the holder directly in the air stream coming out of the Hepa machine for about 20 seconds. I then slowly put the dark slide back in while holding the film upside down in the air stream.
On the 10 sheets I exposed yesterday, I have absolutely no dust marks. None. It is always the little solitary floater bits that get you, no matter how careful you are. This seems to blow them all off. Considering that this was much handled film I was expecting problems and was pleasantly surprised.