rewashing color nagatives

I pulled out my negatives to make a few prints and I found that all of my

negatives where subject to moisture. On most of the negatives there are

moisture spots. I used to keep negatives in the ClearFiles pages, in the safe,

and I guess there was excess of the moisture in the safe.

 

Now I need to clean negatives, and I was thinking about rewashing them. I was

thinking about washing them in Photo-Flo or FLEXICOLOR Final Rinse and

Replenisher. We are talking about color negatives 2-15 years old. Any

thoughts? Do I need to worry about adding stabilizer?

 

Thanks,

 

Vadik.

 

PS: wiping negatives with Pec12 and similar doesn't look too attractive due to

the number of the negatives (a few hundred rolls).

I'm interested in seeing responses to this, too. The last time I had to do anything I contacted a tech at Kodak. (This was for vintage b/w film.) I followed his directions and everything seemed to turn out well. You have to be very careful, as you'll end up re-softening emulsion and it'll be suceptible to scratching. I had one neg that looked like the emulsion cracked on it. (Like the technique of hot-cold-hot processing film to crack it...sorry I forget the term.)

 

Anyhow, the bigger issue later will be how to store them again.

 

The safe? Try leaving it open a few days during LOW humidity first of all.

 

Second, add some commercial dessicant. This comes in a number of forms, but you can use dessicant designed to dry flowers. This is probably more available and cheaper. You could also use white rice inside of a cloth bag or sock. Bake the rice on REAL low heat to ensure that all of the ambient moisture is out of it. Probably less than 150 degrees F. Then pull from the oven, cool, and put it in your container.

 

These things might help to lower the humidity inside the safe. I'm quite sure you don't want to go TOO low- there are some problems on that side I think too.

 

Good luck... I'll be watching.

The last rinse in C41 is a wash/stabilizer, different from B&W photoflo, but I'm not exactly sure if it would matter. It seem to recall from my C41 days that contains an antifungal agent also. It's been 7 years since I ran a C41 line.

 

If you are concerned, I'd go to a local private lab and get a quart of premixed C41 final rinse. It should be a dollar or 2. Much easier to be sure for the cost.

 

Doug

Doug, my understanding was that "FLEXICOLOR Final Rinse and Replenisher" is the final rinse in c41 process.

If "moisture spots" describes a partially rough or uneven surface of the film gelatine layer, then you will not be able to remove them. Try to wash one or two of the strips with water (and a wetting agent), and see if it helps at all, before you start a big project.

 

Stabilizer won't hurt, but it would make handling a little bit more difficult, because you should avoid contact of your skin with the stabilizer. It also might produce some fumes, if it ist formaldehyde-based.

 

I do not think that the "stabilzing effect" can be washed out by rewashing the negatives (AFAIK, it is a crosslinking of undeveloped dye), and the antifungal activity of the stabilizer is not absolutely necessary, if you store your negatives in a dry place (I guess you will do so in the future).

 

 

Reagrds

 

Georg