Cleaning Kodachrome slides query

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Monte

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Monte
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Hello good people,

This is my first post so apologies if it is in the wrong section, or has been covered before.

I have a few hundred old Kodachrome slides that I have started to scan with my Nikon slide scanner, after which I am digitising them using Vuescan scanning software. However several of my slides have mould and growth etc on them, and I have just bought some PEC-12 cleaning fluid and pads which seem to be well recommended. I recall reading somewhere a bit back about using cleaning fluid on slides that you don`t clean both sides of an affected slide, i.e. you only clean the non-emulsion side. Apparently if you wipe the emulsion side with a cleaning fluid, the emulsion may come off thus ruining the slide. Having looked at a slide or two, it is not apparent (to me anyway!) which side is which. Can anyone advise? As everyone who has Kodak slides will know, the cardboard slides have the Kodak logo (red lettering on a yellow background) one side at the bottom right, and the other side says "view from this side"
I also have some Agfa slides that have plastic mounts, these are blue on one side and white on the other, again I would like to know what side is the emulsion side if anyone knows.

Hope someone can help!

Kind regards,

Monte
 
When viewed from the non-emulsion side, the orientation is correct, viewed from the emulsion side then left and right are swapped.
 
Hi and welcome to TP :)

Crumbs it has been a very long while since I looked at or even checked the many 100's of my old slides.

However, in regard to the Kodachromes and slides in general is that (subject to someone correcting me ?) where the Kodachrome ones give the guide "view from this side" you are of course 'seeing' it as taken i.e. the emulsion is on the opposite side to the wording. In other words no different to holding up a negative, if you want to see the 'image' of the scene the right way round you have to look through the emulsion not at the emulsion.

Caveat as above ~ hopefully remembering this correctly :thinking:

Edit ~ drat too slow to post and late to the party again :LOL:
 
Hello Steogosarus,

Thank you very much for your quick response.......

Kind regards,

Monte
 
At risk of repeating others, Kodachrome slides have a particularly distinctive emulsion side which has a textured 'relief' so it shouldn't be too difficult to identify.

Generally speaking the matte side is the emulsion and shiny side the base, though might be less clear if they're very dirty.

Would recommend scanning before cleaning just incase, I've had mixed results with mouldy slides.
 
Hello guys,

Thank you Box Brownie for your kind comments and your clear explanation re the emulsion and non-emulsion sides of the slides, Thanks Thmaga for your info as well.
I have just cleaned 5 slides with the PEC-12 , one of them was completely covered in mould etc. Cleaning the non-emulsion side improved it quite a bit, but it still wasn`t that good, so contrary to what I had read and mentioned above, as it was a "test" slide I wasn`t too bothered about keeping, I cleaned the emulsion side as well. This has actually improved it further, so as the advice I have read suggests you wait 24 hours after cleaning before scanning, I shall have a scanning session tomorrow. I previously scanned the test slide last week so it will be interesting to compare the results!.

Thanks again,

Kind regards,

Monte
 
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