Cleaning film

[hightreason]

Hello out there. Does anyone know of a good way to clean your film? I'd imagine you would have to use something that evaporates rather rapidly. Does lens cleaning solution work? How do you guys clean your film?

[Jean Poirier]

You have to use a film cleaner solution. You will find it in a camera store. Kodak solution should work fine. Do not use lens cleaner, it will ruin your film.

Jean

[hightreason]

Ok, I got film cleaning solution and found out how to apply it, but after I clean a roll of film, there is yellow residue on the cloth. This is obviously scary... When I first noticed it, I ran the film through my viewer and there are no streaks or color oddities on it. Is this residue normal? This is not old film. I just barely got it back, and it has hardly ever seen the light of day.

[MovieStuff]

Relax. This is normal. The best way to clean your film is to wind it all onto the take up reel and then clean it while you slowly rewind. If you hold your cleaning cloth close to the take up reel, then the film will have a nice, long travel before it gets to the feed reel. That should give it enough time to evaporate. Everytime you stop, you should use a small camel hair brush to dust away any collected debris that builds up under the cloth (from BOTH sides of the film). This will minimize the possiblity of scratches due to grit or debris that may have accumulated. Then reapply some more cleaner to the cloth (on a new section) and overlap the previous cleaned area of film by a couple of inches. The residue you find on the cloth is normal.

Roger

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 30, 2002 10:23 PM: Message edited by: MovieStuff ]</font>

[8th Man]

Is there a basic rule of thumb about how often this is nesessary? And how 'bout lubrication? Film can get brittle after a while.