Dust! Don't you just love the way it
manages to settle on to your equipment just as you make that all important
exposure? The more you fiddle about picking every speck off, those bits
'standing in the wings' charge in at increasing speed towards
your lens, negative and light sensor; so begins a never ending battle fought everyday over the
same territory! Should someone come
up with a device that will send those
particles packing you'll feel your prayers have been answered.
Welcome the
Zerostat gun! one shot and those pesky particles are de-charged and falling
from your lens etc. But come on! Can this really be true? Well No! after a few
days of using this device I discovered that it attracted more dust than ever
before! It was a nice idea while it lasted. Needless to say that this pistol
has been consigned to history.
Really the
only way to keep these little white specks from appearing on your final
pictures is to be methodical in your approach. Checking your camera, lenses and
enlarger regularly. But before you start this process it is a good idea to
de-charge yourself by touching something that is earthed this will take the
static out of your body and stop to some extent the static building up in the
item you are trying to de-dust. Whatever you do don't use a cloth to clean your
film strip, the static this induces will attract every bit of hair and dust in
the universe turning it into a hair ball. If this happens its time to find
another negative to print. I find that a puffer brush and a Kinetronice antistatic
whisk brush work the best- in most cases removing the particle/s and hair in
one go without a lot of fuss. Less fuss means more pictures printed with less
spotting once the photograph is dry.
Remember
never touch the bristle of your brush with bare fingers this will transfer
microscopic particles of grease which will then be deposited to whatever you
are trying to clear, making the job more difficult and in the case of old
lenses will attack the coating.
