Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

EXACTLY! Much simpler and less time consuming.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yeah, that bothered me, too. First thing to do is get all the surface crud off that you can, using air or compressed gas (blower bulb or Dust-Off). Static charged film can be discharged and wiped with a clean Staticmaster brush.

The Anti-Staticum cloths do work if used on spots, but you must use clean ones and use them sparingly. I sometimes lightly moisten a corner of one with PEC-12 and wipe gently to remove mildew from slides.

https://photosol.com/pec-12-faq/

Years ago, pre-digital technologies, we bought PEC-12 by the case of quart cans in the lab where I worked. We filled up laboratory squirt bottles and put all the right warnings on them, then distributed them throughout film handling areas. PEC-12 was used to clean carded negatives (The negative cards crop-mounted single negatives for semi-automatic machine printing). We also used it for stubborn spots found on long-roll film.

Since we processed several miles of unperforated long roll 35mm, 46mm, and 70mm, plus 35mm perforated, 120/220, and sheet films up to 8x10 — each day — we had to keep it clean.

We used 3M film cleaners for long roll portrait film. They had adhesive rollers that picked up most particulates on the film. Those rollers would clean up to 1000 feet of film before they had to be removed, washed, and dried for 24 hours. We had 24 sets of them. They were great when we could get the operators to take care with them. They could ruin film if the operator was slack that day. We learned quickly to hire careful film cleaning people! Cleaning film in bulk is a boring job, but it does take care.

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

I would soak them in running water @ 68 degrees for about an hour, then a quick rinse in PhotoFlo (or a few drops of dish soap to a gallon of water) at the same 68 degrees, then hang them to dry in a dust free area. I would not squeegee them because, if there are any dirt particles left on the film, it will scratch them.
If there are still dirt particles left after that, I would scan them and remove the particles in PP.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Clean it in post if you can't remove it manually!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

NO WATER on the emulsion side. Water is a last resort for sticky food-based goo. I always try other methods first, as mentioned above, then use distilled water on a swab to dislodge water-soluble goo like dried soft drink splatter, coffee...

Chromogenic films are tricky... Some can't even be cleaned with Isopropyl or PEC-12. Test your cleaning methods on a few unimportant negs of the same film stock.

therwol Loc: USA

Time consuming, depending on how much contamination. I'd rather start as clean as possible.

therwol Loc: USA

I don't have nearly as much crud on my color negatives. (I'm scanning those too.) I'm not sure why except for my technique in washing and drying negatives I did myself.

therwol Loc: USA

I'm going to try that next. The stuff is absolutely glued to the emulsion. It was not so difficult to remove before sitting around for 45 years.

therwol Loc: USA

Still available in quart cans for about 75 bucks apiece.

therwol Loc: USA

Has anyone actually tried a short dunk in an ultrasonic cleaner? I don't want to buy one unless someone has had success doing this. I read that there are ultrasonic cleaning machines that movie studios use for this, but I would imagine they're quite expensive and involve a lot of cleaning solution.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

Squeegeeing film is dangerous. A squeegee blade can scratch a soft wet emulsion, by itself or by dragging tiny particles of dirt and whatever along with it.

I haven't looked for years, but there used to be photo-grade sponges available. Soft damp sponge wrapped around the filmstrip and pulling film through is much safer than a squeegee.

Or, if using Photo-Flo, the need for any kind of wiping is eliminated altogether.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yeah, it's never been cheap! But it's the best stuff out there for removing organic crud and mildew from film. So long as mildew hasn't eaten into the film too far, it comes off with PEC-12 and light pressure from a swab.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I squeegeed thousands of rolls of B&W and Ektachrome over the years. I never had any issues with scratches.

Photo-Flo works without any wiping in some localities, but not all. Local water used to mix it may leave a powdery residue on film where water drops cling. At least, it did in Charlotte.

Here's the key, taught to me by a camera store clerk and master custom printer in 1968: My Yankee squeegee was always cleaned in a few drops of dishwashing liquid and warm water immediately after use, and stored in a quart-size plastic bag, left open, but kept in a drawer. I'd always rinse it, then dip it in Photo-Flo (for B&W) or E-6 Stabilizer (for Ektachrome) before squeegeeing the film. NEVER use a dry squeegee, or a squeegee that has been stored out in the open to gather dust and grit. That's where the whole scratch issue came from. I used that same squeegee for 20 years.

Admittedly, most folks aren't that careful! But I learned from some pretty anal-retentive lab rats over the years. I've always had the attitude that keeping film clean, and cleaning it just before use, eliminates the need for spotting prints or digital files.

At the lab where I spent most of my career, we printed millions of school portraits from film every Fall (prior to film scanning in the early 2000s and digital capture in the mid-2000s). The most important thing we could do was to keep film, printers, film transports, and paper transports clean. It reduced the need to hire spotters to paint out the white spots on thousands of prints, using 000 brushes and difficult to mix color dyes.

Bill P

When I had a home darkroom I was more careful than when I worked in a lab. I had filters on the incoming water, and for the final rinse, I used water from a reverse osmosis filter with photo-flo mixed in. And, I used a sponge wiper. Rarely did I get a scratch.

But I have always held film by the edges. One finger on each outside edge, like when loading from a bulk roll. When I find it necessary to grab anywhere within the same county as the image, I use cotton gloves.

patman1 Loc: Pataskala, Ohio

I dont know if this helps but I have been cleaning my B/W negs for the last 40 years with alcohol. Initially, take negs from sleeve, remove dust, if any with blower and then wipe with dust free pad and alcohol. To date no scratches and all negs still perfect.