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Originally Posted by obcbeatle
Thanks Lance ... as usual very useful information. And thanks to everyone for their replies and suggestions. One more thing I wanted to ask ... it was suggested to clean the slide transparencies. After doing a little research on this it seems there are many methods being use. Anything from gently using a new soft bristle paint brush to compressed air. I can't imagine using compressed air, and I'm not even sure about using a new paint brush. Is cleaning slides something that someone else in this group has done? I know I can try to find a reputable photo lab that might clean these slides as well as scan them for me. But even that I'm finding tough to do because there is a significant amount of trust in letting someone else handle these Marvin Newman slides. I guess I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person and don't mind learning to do things a proper way with a little instruction. Anyway ... my plan now is to buy a slide viewer as was suggested by Lance and others, then clean the slides myself if it seems like something I am capable of doing w/o damaging the slides (I would practice on some family slides first), and then eventually buy a scanner to do my own scanning. I need to further research drum scanning vs. non-drum scanning. Apparently drum scanning is best ... but very expensive. Thanks again to all that replied to my original post!
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Jerry,
I'm new to most of this also, but can offer a few suggestions. Drum scanning will provide better results than flatbed scanners but my understanding is that these are primarily used for film, negatives and unmounted transparencies ( the transparency has to be physically attached to the curved surface of the drum) and you don't want to remove yours from the original Newman mounts.
With respect to cleaning, there are electrostatic brushes on the market that safely remove dust, etc without damaging the surface of the film (most can be found at Photography sites on the web).
Finally, one archival product that I have had much success with in cleaning film, negatives and transparencies (including those from the '50's), is Pec-12.
When used with their wipes as instructed, my experience has been that they remove a great deal of residue (from improper developing times and washing) as well as overt markings such as ink, etc. without any damage to the surface of the transparency. And , yes, I have used this on some of the Newman slides with great results. As always, test on older unwanted home slides before using on a small portion of the Newman slide to be certain all is O.K.
With respect to scanners, I am just now looking seriously into some that will do an adequate job on both photos and negatives, film and transparencies. My preliminary research has indicated that you should be able to get one for between $150-$500 and that the software is probably just as important, if not more so, as the hardware. Those that will permit direct wet mounting of unmounted film, negatives and transparencies on the scanning platen seem to provide a noticeable increase in sharpness.
Hope some of this helps.
Cheers,
Craig