How to remove left over remjet after film has dried.

[Seth Baldwin]

When shooting stills of vision3 and developing ecn-2 at home, i remove most of the remjet off the film with the prebath, and then during the wash after development before the final rinse I will use a microfibre cloth while soaked in 30 degrees water to run along the film to try and remove any left over remjet. However I find even after doing all this, my negatives will dry after about 24 hours and they're still a bit sticky from remjet. This has become an issue with my lab being able to scan the negatives.

Is there anyway I can remove all left over remjet after the film has already been developed and dried?

[Charles MacDonald]

it is soften with the pre-bath, but is very dificult to get off.  you might try wiping the back of the film with a microcloth wetted with pre-bath. but I am not sure how to remove THAT to ensure storage safety.

[Seth Baldwin]

50 minutes ago, Charles MacDonald said:

it is soften with the pre-bath, but is very dificult to get off.  you might try wiping the back of the film with a microcloth wetted with pre-bath. but I am not sure how to remove THAT to ensure storage safety.

Is prebath even safe to use on already processed film?

[Charles MacDonald]

that is why I suggested to use a cloth to only put it on the back. 

 

it is over 10 years since I last tried to use Movie film for home processed stills.  at that time I used water to wet two sponges one on tech side of the film, to try and keep the black from getting on the emulsion, as several folks told me that if it got on the emulsion it might never come off.

I had to wash both sponges about every 6 inches of film.  this was done after the wash step and before the final rinse I was using in home made chemicals which were somewhere in between ECN2 and C41   - I did give a 1 minute extra wash  after the sponge step. 

the negs I recently scanned from that period were within what the scanner software could deal with.

[Seth Baldwin]

So would you suggest I dip a microfibre cloth in the prebath, only run it down the back side of the already processed and dried film, then submerge the film in a water bath to wash it off, then do a final rinse with photoflo again?

Edited June 30, 2021 by Seth Baldwin

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

Why do you make things so hard on yourself OP? 

https://help.cinestillfilm.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028874012-What-is-Remjet-#:~:text=Remjet is a protective layer,do not have remjet backing.

 

[Robert Houllahan]

In a ECN processor the step after the prebath is a rotary sponge which has a set of water jets, I would suggest building something with a rotary backing removal tool and water to carry the backing away.

[Seth Baldwin]

8 hours ago, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

Why do you make things so hard on yourself OP? 

https://help.cinestillfilm.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028874012-What-is-Remjet-#:~:text=Remjet is a protective layer,do not have remjet backing.

 

I'd rather not have all my highlights glow red..

[Philip Forrest]

I've removed Remjet on Kodachrome after soaking in a bath of Borax. It's gross and messy, but the weak base effectively loosens it allowing mechanical removal. Make sure to do at least one wash after that.

Aside from that, I'm not sure why anyone uses color motion picture stock for shooting stills (unless you have a short end left over you got for free) due to the pain of different development and the Remjet issue. It's certainly not cheaper than still film, of which there are plenty of great emulsions out there.

Phil Forrest

Edited July 5, 2021 by Philip Forrest