Cleaning Slides

How do you clean slides? My dad has a bunch of slides from 30+ years ago sitting in his basement, that I would like to clean up. If for nothing else, to store them properly for future use. They have been in the basement for as long as I can remember, and over the years, have been subject to some very damp conditions. I'm sure some of them are lost causes, but I know some of them are salvageable. So what is the best way to go about cleaning them up? Will some isopropal alcohol and a cotton swab do the trick, or will that cause more harm to the image? I guess the end goal for the future would be to have them scanned at some point, but I think cleaning them up as much before hand would be the place to start. Any suggestions?

I would do as little as possible. Any chemicals you put on them may have some unknown long-term effect which won't happen if you don't do it. ;) I'd make sure that they're all thoroughly dry and replace any mounts that show moisture damage (mold?). Then put them in some sort of archival grade storage system.

I use these boxes from Light Impressions that are archival and pretty inexpensive for that amount of storage.

Thanks for the tip AV. I just spoke to the local pro, and he said he used a product called Pec-12. I'm going to take a couple slides to him tomorrow to test it out on. None of the important ones that I really want to save, but something just to try it out on. I also found something on the net to day that said to us Isopropal alcohol, but that it should be a solution of 98% or higher... Thanks again for the advice!

No problemo - Light Impressions sells this stuff too (I think). The only problem with some of these chemicals (including darkroom chemistry) is the shipping of hazardous materials. Ask this person where they get it, it's easier to pick up locally and you don't have to pay extra.

I see B&H has it, but they wont ship it, but Adoramo will. The local pro said he would order it for me too. Once I see how it works tomorrow, I might have him order me a bottle. Wish me luck!

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Originally Posted by mjs1973

Wish me luck!

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You got it! :D

BTW, Calumet ships most of the wierd stuff - I've ordered Eclipse cleaning solution and developer that way. Their downtown Chicago location is now open Saturday which is kinda dangerous... Very cool store.

Well, I stoped at the local photo studio with some dirty slides to experiment with today. I took some slides that I wasn't too worried about loosing incase this stuff ruined them, and it's a good thing. They guy put a little cleaner on the finger tip of his cotton glove, and proceded to clean the slide. After a few seconds, he looked at the tip of his finger and said, I got a lot of stuff off of it. Um, notice all the COLOR on your white glove? Yup, 30+ years of crap came off of the slide, along with the emulsion. He was pressing really hard when he was cleaning it, so I'm not surprised. I think I will experiment with some isopropal alcohol, and a cotton swap, just to get the mold off of them, then leave them alone.

You're probably a lot safer on the base (non-emulsion) side - but very good thinking to try it out on something not critical. Sorry to hear that it didn't work. :(

If you want to try anything else, you might ask a museum - maybe contact their photography curator.

Are you dealing with E-6 process slides or Kodachrome or Kodachrome-II? Very different chemistry and the Kodachromes are a physical medium more than is the newer E-6.

The cleaning stuff out there is primarily for dye dependent film and is usually recommend for print film only (buried in some warning label or another). That is C-41/CN-16 chemistry.

If you have moldy Kodachrome, I'd try taking a reagent bottle with at least distilled and preferrably de-ionized water and gently washing the mold off after whatever a bulb type blower won't blow off. If, and only if you have a very steady hand, a very small brush made for negative/chrome film might be used on dry slides. Use a magnifying loop to guide your hand.

Needless to say this is a painful and annoying process. If the mold isn't too bad or pervasive or a lot come s off with gentle blowing, trying scanning a few and see if you can't correct them digitally. It has the advantage of not doing further damage.

If they are really important there are (as recommend) preservation and restoration specialists but that is fairly costly.

First though determine what film/slide type you're dealing with and then go from there.
I don't think IsoPropyl is a good choice for Kodachrome.

Some type of cleaning may require 're-fixing' the chemistry.

Good luck and let us know what you discover .

Thanks for the advice!!! Alot of these slides are Kodachrome, and some Ektachrome, and some, I'm not too sure of. I will hold off on the IsoPropyl and will do some more research before I venture any further, other than the blower. Thanks again!