That Ol' Devil Called Dust

I recently treated myself to a Epson V750 Pro - very nice machine.

 

However this question is more about dust and anti staic solutions people may have had experience

with...any suggestions welcome.

 

Yes I know it comes with ICE but I really want info on good neg holders like the plastic v paper...

 

As soon as i remove a 5x4 from it's sleeve... it's a dust magnet...same for the scan bed...

 

I get the feeling i'm obsessing but...

 

Are there any good gadjets on the market?

 

Thanks folks

antistatic clothe?

 

bounce sheet (you know the little sheet that you put in your dryer) to wipe your material to remove static.

 

that should help.

I obtain good results before & after scanning by first blow-gunning the film (or slide), then softly running it through an 'Antistaticum' cloth. They're orange in color, mostly. A desktop air filtering machine, which I also employ close to the scanner, may be of dubious effect. Film inherent dirt, courtesy of labs that won't change chemistry often enough anymore is a different story. That's where ICE comes in. Does an excellent job.

I never use ICE in my life (i mean i tried it and since it was so long, and tend to remove good stuff, i develop my version)

 

My way in CS took approximatly 10 second to do and remove a s***load of dust in need. Indeed a good dust free as possible environement will help.

I too can remove dust and any crud I want in Photoshop - however that wasn't my

question.

well then whe answer it in that case.

 

good luck.

try a humidifier in the room.

Try wiping down everything in the area where you work with a dryer sheet,as said above, bounce works pretty well to cut down the static electricity that attracts the dust.

A small air compressor and an airbrush is really helpful. Blow off everything really carefully, glass, holder and film. Then close the lid immediately.

Dust control involves several measures. Controlling humidity helps eliminate static electricity which attracts dust to materials that can store it. Storing film in plastic creates a capacitor, which attracts static. Glassine envelopes are better. Conductivity is important also, as for example, not having static prone carpeting and wearing conductive shoes -leather instead of rubber, will also help drain static from the body. Wearing static prone clothing should be avoided: use cotton instead of synthetics. An air purifier or an electrostatic filter if you have central heating will help. Air conditioners remove humidity from the air so does heating. Static Master brushes are excellent and I thoroughly recommend them. The half life of the polonium strip is about 18 months, but that does not mean the brush dies in 18 months, only that 1/2 its power is lost in 18 months. I have had SM brushes that function perfectly after 6-10 years. Finally, fluidmounting / fluid scanning tackles dust without degrading image quality, gives other benefits well beyond dust control.

Julio

www.scanscience.com

John: I spent many years doing darkroom work with large format negatives. Regardless of how diligent I was in keeping my environment dust free, and I was, I still had to control dust on my negatives every time I made an enlargement. One device that I quite liked was a rather simple small hand held static controller, (unfortunately I havent seen them for sale for a while though they still may be out there)that was a device that looked sort of like a hand held stapler that, when you squeezed it together, emitted an anti static charge out a small hole. These devices were made to remove static from old LP records but worked on anything that you aimed it at. For negatives coming from plastic sleeves, it worked very well. I would aim the device , neutralize the static, and then blow off the now loose dust with a blower. Sorry I dont remember the name of this thing but I would inquire at a high end stereo place where they still sell turntables. It only cost me maybe $15 or $20 about 20 years back. Good luck.