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Damned dust


Michael-IIIf

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What is it about dust?

 

Last week I developed a roll of Delta. Followed the instructions of others here - like running hot water in the bathroom to add moisture and remove floating dust before hanging the neg up to dry - and everything worked a treat. No dust. Nothing. Didn't have to spot one frame on the whole roll.

 

This week, followed exactly the same procedure and the film looked like someone had emptied the vacuum cleaner bag on it. I was spotting for ages in PhotoShop.

 

Aargh!

 

At least that is easier than doing it on traditional darkroom prints!

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if u dont have a filmm drying cabinet (even the simple one) then what may happen is that the bathroom can become dusty more than the previous time......

for example, if peopple walk there even a bit, or if u had shower and the colths made the dust in the air (bot dirt, just dust from some textile materials).......... oh and dont walk with the film in your hand back and forth...... remove the film from the reel only in the bath.... clean it in water as u desribed and maybe even use weting stuff (ilfotol or agapon) and imidiatly hang there and leave the place :)

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remove the film from the reel only in the bath....

 

Tnx - I'll do that next time.

 

Also - the extract fan (which runs for a few minutes with the light) must be acting as a negative pressure pulling dirty air into the room. I'll try it next time without the fan (in the dark!) to see if this helps things. I had better bring a torch or I'll end up putting finger prints all over the neg!

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Now that you've all solved my dust on film problems :) maybe can you sort out my LPs.

 

It wrecks my head that some are as noisy as a kid playing with bubble-wrap and others are as silent as a Mahler pause when all have been stored and cared for the same way.

 

:confused:

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Now that you've all solved my dust on film problems :) maybe can you sort out my LPs.

 

It wrecks my head that some are as noisy as a kid playing with bubble-wrap and others are as silent as a Mahler pause when all have been stored and cared for the same way.

 

:confused:

 

Precisely why I got rid of all mine many years ago and went CD only. Never regretted it! :)

 

Maybe that has something to do with why I use digital rather than film?

 

Unfortunately I have recently been teetering on the brink of getting a film Leica - but therein lies a VERY slippery slope!

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wait.... what is LP ?

 

michael.... u sure your dust is stucked on negatives , maybe u have some dust catched while scanning.... it is also possible..... if so, dust that sticked on dry film is not nice but not a problem either - the most important is that your film is ok .........

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Guest tummydoc

Purchase one of those soft-sided rectangular zippered affairs meant to store full-length garments hanging in a closet along with one of those over-the-door-top hangers meant to hang several garments behind a door (basically a bracket that fits on top of a door with a wire frame of about 25cm or so which stands proud at 90 degrees). Hang the garment box on the door hanger, inside the box is a slender pole meant for clothes hangers, but you can suspend several films by clips, weighted at the bottom. Keeps the room dust off the films whilst they dry. If you're really of a mood to get creative, cut a hole near the bottom and attach the hose from a ladies' hair dryer, set on the lowest possible setting, and punch a few holes near the top (but on the sides, not on top directly) for air-flow.

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I still have a few thousand LPs. I've never played mine for a while, but my turntable needs servicing and I have to think about a new cartridge.

 

Maybe the problem lies in your cartridge and speakers. If they both have a rising frequency responce or a spike in the higher frequencies that could exagerate any problems.

 

One thing I found was that as I upgraded the problem of surface noise seemed to decrease, presumably because of better controlled frequency responses/resonances.

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I have thousands of LPs too. A while back I mentioned to someone about the surface noise, he came round with a new cartridge, set it up and the difference was astonishing.

His reasoning was I has an elliptical stylus that was playing at the top of the groove the cart he put in had a line contact stylus, this payed a different part of the groove (further down)

Needless (or should that be needles) to say I now have a new cartridge.

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Did you throw them out, or are they in your attic? If the latter, I'll be around later to collect them :)

 

Alas, Michael the (considerable) money I got for them from a dealer financed the initial CD collection, so you're many years too late! :rolleyes: Sorry! :)

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Alas, Michael the (considerable) money I got for them from a dealer financed the initial CD collection, so you're many years too late! :rolleyes: Sorry! :)

 

I'm impressed you got money for them. Perhaps it was a considerable collection. One of the hifi forums I frequent has a contributor who has amassed 10,000 LPs in the 90s as people simply gave them away. He recounts that he developed a bit of a name as someone who took in unwanted vinyl and he had strangers knocking on his door handing over collections of 500 at a time because it saved them a trip to the dump.

 

Coming back to the dust question: I would hope there is nothing wrong with my cartridge. It may not be the best made but it's a one year old Ortofon Rondo Blue MC which I laboriously set up with a protractor and test LP. Just this morning I bought a 49p LP from a charity shop and it's mint, not a single scratch nor pop.

 

I dunno :confused:

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Michael, the value depends on condition and label. Just as an example I sold quite a few Decca classical LPs on eBay. These were good quality original pressings from the 60s and 70s - these can be identified by the label design. On average they went for about £50, often higher if the record was a bit on the rare side.

 

I also sold a couple of very good original 1960s Beatles EPs to Japanese sellers for just less than £200 each.

 

A lot depends on condition and the LP being an original pressing - it's a bit like book 1st editions.

 

When I sold an original mono copy of Sgt Pepper I was inundated with questions. One chap sent be a sheet of A4 listing all the changes made in the lifetime of the mono LP - ink colour, text printed that sort of thing. From memory there were about 30 variations and he was trying to buy a copy of each one.

 

And you though Leica enthusiasts could be anal <grin>

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What is it about dust?

 

Last week I developed a roll of Delta. Followed the instructions of others here - like running hot water in the bathroom to add moisture and remove floating dust before hanging the neg up to dry - and everything worked a treat. No dust. Nothing. Didn't have to spot one frame on the whole roll.

 

This week, followed exactly the same procedure and the film looked like someone had emptied the vacuum cleaner bag on it. I was spotting for ages in PhotoShop.

 

Aargh!

 

At least that is easier than doing it on traditional darkroom prints!

 

I gave up on solving the dust problem and the hours spent in PS with the clone tool or healing brush. I now shoot only Ilford XP2 and (Nikon) scan using Digital ICE.

 

Harry

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I gave up on solving the dust problem and the hours spent in PS with the clone tool or healing brush. I now shoot only Ilford XP2 and (Nikon) scan using Digital ICE.

 

Harry

 

Hmm. I was a bit depressed when I scanned my first negs and they required a lot of dust removal in PS. However, now that I started using fresh Photo-flo, I seriously have almost no problems. A quick inspection with a light and a fine tipped brush to get large fibers that might be on the neg... That's about it. I might have 5-10 small spots on a bad neg, but many don't require any cloning at all.

 

And I don't take any special precautions with my developing. Chems are in distilled water as is the photo-flo final wash, but all rinses are out of the bathroom sink. Then the negs get hung up in the shower. I don't even bother to turn off the heat or AC and the vent is right next to the shower in the bathroom...

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