Best way to clean film holders?

[Brad Bireley]

What's the best way to clean film holders? I received 3 with the camera. One of the slides has a crack, can you get another slide for it?

Sorry about all of the simple questions,
Brad

[Poco]

Aside from brushing all the slots and interior surfaces of a film holder, the most important thing to realise is that most dust comes from the light trap that the darkslide slides through.

Try this experiment: pull the darkslide out about two thirds of the way, grab it by the side edges and repeatedly slide it in and out through the light trap about ten times, each time sliding it just enough so its edge clears the trap in either direction. In effect, you're using that edge to scrape all the dust out of there. At the end of that process, I bet you'll see a light colored line of dust on the dark slide marking the furthest point you've pushed the slide through. And, presumably, you've pushed an equal amount of dust out the other side of the trap down into the open guts of the film holder.

I do this in and out thing with every darkslide when I clean my holders and, though it sounds fussy, it only adds about one minute's time to the job and been the only thing that really solved the dust problem.

[Eric Leppanen]

On my photo trips I take several cans of Dust-Off (pressurized air) to blast any dust off my film holders during changing. You can use the plastic straw that comes with each can to blast air into all the nooks and crannies of the holder.

If you have a standard Fidelity or Lisco holder, you can purchase a replacement darkslide. B&H sells 8x10 dark slides for $20, plus used slides come up fairly often on Ebay.

[p krentz]

I use my vacum to suck out the light trap after pulling the dark slide, and along the film groves. Pat

[df cardwell]

Wooden holders can be disassembled, the traps removed and cleaned: vacuum and masking tape.

[BradS]

I always give my newly acquired, used film holders a bath when I first receive them - if they're not really clean that is. I know, it sounds outrageous but it works well. They dry in a few days. Just leave the dark slides out until the light traps (the slot where the dark slide is normally inserted) dry.

I use a vacuum on the light trap and the film grooves once in a while and always keep the film holders in zip lock bags. Works for me.

I have a few extra dark slides for 4x5 film holders. Shoot me a PM if you need one.

Brad.

[jonw]

After you have cleaned your filmholders, I have found that anti-static bags sold by Gary Claunch at <staticbags.com> work great. They come in various sizes and IMO protect the filmholders especially after film has been loaded and subsequently exposed. It seems there is never enough time to get the LF gear out, so I try to minimize problems and this has helped. Jon

[kjsphoto]

Oh also Glad Zip Lock bags work wonderful once you clean them out. I store all my holers in these bags after a shoot and hit them with canned air.

Kev

[scott k]

After you have cleaned your filmholders, I have found that anti-static bags sold by Gary Claunch at <staticbags.com> work great. They come in various sizes and IMO protect the filmholders especially after film has been loaded and subsequently exposed. It seems there is never enough time to get the LF gear out, so I try to minimize problems and this has helped. Jon

One film holder per bag or do you put in more than one? What size bags do you get? Sounds like a great idea! My zip-lock bags seem to attract dust.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good computer vacuum? The attachments on our household vacuum are covered with pet fur!

Scott

[jonw]

One film holder per bag or do you put in more than one? What size bags do you get? Sounds like a great idea! My zip-lock bags seem to attract dust.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good computer vacuum? The attachments on our household vacuum are covered with pet fur!

Scott

Scott, they come in many sizes of anti-static zip lock type bags. checkout the website www.stacticbags.com
I usually store 2 or 3 8x10 filmholders in the 11x14 bags. They keep static charges out and I have not have trouble with dust being collected by these bags as I had with the standard ziplock bags.
Jon