[LRflex] Re: Something somewhat different

Charlie, you're cutting to the chase, eh ? I think I know what you're getting at, the difficulty of getting CLEAN negatives. I have a challenge with that; microfine volcanic dust in our water. The solution that seems to work is the following; 5 micron filter takes out the chewable lumps, a ceramic filter takes out virus-sized particles and I use this water to pre-soak and to wash negatives. I usually wash using a method i call "successive dilution" whereby ten water changes (with agitation) should remove the fix. The last step is the most crucial; I use distilled water with a small amount of wetting agent (one use only) and I slowly run the loop of film through the wetting solution as I prepare to hang it up. This tends to remove as much liquid from the film as possible and it eliminates that nasty tendency for droplets to form.

 

I usually hang film in the shower stall in the bathroom. So, there's my technique for getting clean negatives under challenging conditions.

 

David Simms, Clearwater, BC, Canada

-- 
Charlie Falke                                         _____      /\
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"One test result is worth                        |    |/        `o
  one thousand expert opinions" - Wernher Von Braun   0  N4003M
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein