This is topic Film Gloves - Latex or Cloth in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-08-2005, 03:02 PM:
 
Okey, I'm going to open a topic (and if there is already a thread on this, please re-direct and close this one) on film handling gloves.

Does one uses the cloth, or does one uses the latex gloves when assembling prints?

I remember of Brad's recommendation of using the latex due to the lint that cloth can leave on splice tape edges when sealing down the tape across the film.

I use neither, for I can't produce a good splice with gloves on. Thus I keep my hands washed to reduce the skin oils and handle the film by the edge.

Just curious on this area.

thx-Monte
 

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-08-2005, 03:18 PM:
 
I've used cotton gloves for over 30 years. I always wash new gloves before use. This helps to get rid of most of the lint issues for me. I used to edit 16mm negatives for a friend of mine in Nashville, TN. There was never an issue of white specks in the finished prints.

When I finish an editing session, I will toss the gloves into a plastic bag. I wash them, and use them again, and again, until they get holes in them.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-08-2005, 03:53 PM:
 
For the record, I've never recommended using latex gloves. I would think that would be quite difficult to inspect with and could scratch the film. I always recommended inspecting bare hands, since you shouldn't be touching anything but the edges of the film anyway.

Recently I have forced myself to learn how to inspect with cotton gloves, because the semi-cuts in my fingers got annoying. I figure it was probably about as hard for me to convert as some of the older guys learning how to thread from the bottom up, but just like that, give it a little time and if you have the right attitude, anything can be done.

Currently, I would recommend cotton gloves, but mainly for hand damage reasons. I also ALWAYS remove them before splicing.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 07-08-2005, 04:26 PM:
 
True on that. I remember doing inspections with old acetate prints on a rewind bench and catching a cut sprockethole or a slit section, and with the sharp edge that film will produce when torn........

(..sorry on the misunderstanding. Somewhere then I heard that latex were better than cotton for the lint situation...)

As for reverse threading - as you say - basically try it out and work with it. It's not bad to do. The big thing is to develop a system that works with you on new practices and procedures.

thx-Monte
 

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Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 07-08-2005, 04:27 PM:
 
A co-worker of mine used to snip the index finger tips off of his cotton gloves so that he could make clean tape splices without having to remove his gloves every time. All of the actual film handling was done with his middle finger and thumb. Seemed to work pretty well. I often wondered if there were some sort of liquid latex that could be painted on the fingertips to prevent this annoying edge cuts. Don't sewing shops sell liquid thimbles?
 

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Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 07-08-2005, 04:48 PM:
 
I've started using cotton gloves when inspecting polyester prints. This started after my fingers got chainsawed by a print of KINSEY that had about 500' of perfs ripped off, leaving the film looking like a steak knife. Blood all over the place.

For acetate I still do bare handed, as a glove can catch and tear the film if you hit a cracked sprocket or a notched perf.

No gloves for splicer, ever. I don't need a lint ball on screen.

Latex gloves have no place in the booth. If exposed to an petrol based chemicals they will disintegrate and tear. Use only vinyl gloves if you'll be working with chemicals by hand.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-08-2005, 11:53 PM:
 
Just try handling a piece of sticky tape while wearing a latex glove! It's not an easy thing to do when the tape sticks to the glove.

I vote for cotton gloves. The heavier kind & not those cheap disposable ones. Wash them in fragrance-free detergent and rinse them twice.

When they start to get dirty during use, swap hands. When both sides are dirty... wash, rinse & repeat.
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 07-09-2005, 04:18 AM:
 
I prefer cotton gloves.
Washing before use helps immensely.

I havn't actually used gloves though for the most part and don't really have any problem.

With the gloves I find it harder to get small cuts or burns from the film.

I do however recommend anyone who has clammy hands to use gloves. For the love of all that is Kodak Vision film, use gloves if you're greasy!
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-11-2005, 08:40 AM:
 
I agree with Brad on bare hands (between finger and thumb on the film edges) for initial element examinations. When working on archival elements, you're winding so slowly that finger cutting isn't a problem, anyway. However, some of the repairs we find ourselves needing to do (e.g. repairing torn perforations with Permacel or scraping away the residue from dried out cement joins) make fingers on film virtually unavoidable, and in those cases I prefer latex. I've never been able to find a brand of cotton gloves that doesn't leave deposits either on the film itself, or, more likely, on the Permacel. Furthermore, after about 10-20 minutes I find that sweat from my hand seeps through the cotton and also starts to contaminate the film. With latex it's all trapped inside and you can just keep working until you feel uncomfortable, at which point you simply replace the gloves.
 

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Posted by Jason Greek (Member # 3159) on 07-11-2005, 10:33 PM:
 
I find with the cotton gloves you can find factory splices and imperfections that much easier, and yes, definitely easier on the hands!
 

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 07-12-2005, 07:55 AM:
 
I wear one cotton glove on my left hand, and keep my right hand glove free. I'm right handed, so I can make splices easily by pulling the tape with that hand, and can also handle the film on its surface if necessary with the left at the same time. I only handle the film by its edges with the right hand.
 

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Posted by Olivia Coleman (Member # 3193) on 07-12-2005, 09:13 AM:
 
I was trained with cotton gloves. I only use a bare hand for the edge marking, cue marking, and removing splicing tape from used prints. I actually prefer to splice with the gloves on, the trick is to only touch a small part of the tape that ends up at the other end of the splicer and not on the film. I don't like how my finger sticks when trying to smooth down the tape, it's much easier with the cotton gloves! Just my preference...
 

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Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-12-2005, 09:25 AM:
 
Hey Leo, what about cotton over latex?

Personally, I'm a fan of cotton as well. I also agree with Olivia that a glove works wonders to smooth down tape. Though if I'm doing a lot of splicing in rapid succession, I'll just pick up the glove in my hand and wipe it over the splice, rather than putting it on to take it off a few seconds later.

--jhawk
 

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-12-2005, 09:35 AM:
 
I don't like wearing gloves at all when handling film. I have a much easier time when working with bare hands, and haven't noticed any negative effects of doing so. The cleanliness of the work surface is important, however. Clean hands are extremely important, too, and clean hands are better than dirty gloves.
 

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Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-12-2005, 09:42 AM:
 
It's a good question -- are clean hands better than dirty gloves?

I've gone back and forth on it several times, and I'm not really sure.

A: On the one hand, I have the sense that gloves will tend to pick up dirt and sweat and oil, but they will distribute less onto the film than they pick up; also, that clean hands quickly become dirty and sweaty hands.

B: On the other hand, a glove is more absorbant than a hand, so some kinds of crud may stick to a glove that wouldn't stick to a hand, and might thus be redistributed to the film.

At the moment, I lean towards (A), but I'm really not too sure about it.

--jhawk
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-12-2005, 01:45 PM:
 
LIPID FATS....always oozing out of every pore. Question is, does it hurt the film? Release prints, probably not and probably not something that can be seen on the screen; on the other hand, that oily substance might attract dirt. Negative elements and archival prints would be another story altogether. Obviously ANY foreign substance on negative or virgin film is bad news. I wonder what Kodak recommends. What do cinematographers use when they are loading cameras?
 

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Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 07-12-2005, 01:58 PM:
 

quote: Frank Angel

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What do cinematographers use when they are loading cameras?

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quote: John Hawkinson

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Hey Leo, what about cotton over latex?

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quote: John Hawkinson

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...clean hands quickly become dirty and sweaty hands.

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Agreed entirely, and that happens very quickly indeed in my line of work, e.g. carrying out a first-line examination and accession of a collection of 30 year-old elements which arrive in rusty old cans. For that reason I've often thought that any work area where film handling is carried out should be within easy reach of a wash basin. Health & safety rules forbid running water taps in any room with electrical power points (apart from a shaver socket) here and similar restrictions probably apply elsewhere, but my ideal projection booth or archive workroom would have a a washroom very nearby.

As for loading camera negative stock, I gathered from somewhere that this is pre-loaded into magazines in a studio darkroom. The magazines are then attached to the camera and threaded on location, thereby avoiding the need to handle the complete roll in an uncontrolled environment. As I understand it, this reduces the risk both of contamination and fogging. But I'm probably remembering that wrong - perhaps John could put us right on this?
 

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Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-12-2005, 02:39 PM:
 
The UK is much stricter in terms of electrical regulations than the US is. In the state of Massachusetts, actually, we even have regulations on the books that require an adjoining bathroom with every projection booth (this is part of the same outdated regulations that require licensing of projectionists and other restrictions that are not generally-enforced).

But I don't believe that our National Electric Code would prohibit wash basins in booths; certainly here at MIT we have labs with washbasins and more electrical equipment than most booths in far less space .

Though clearly it would be a good idea for any nearby electrical outlets to be GFCI-protected. (That's "Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor," which means they contain a device to break the circuit if the current on the hot wire differes from the current on the neutral, i.e. to protect against current travelling through a human and into some other ground somewhere, as might happen in the presence of water.)
 

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Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-13-2005, 12:59 AM:
 
You can get inexpensive cotton gloves that are closer to linen than the fluffy, linty cotton gloves. They're a little bit easier to deal with for splices, are a bit more transparent to tactile information, etc.

They're generally available everywhere around the central gulf coast at what are called "Mardi Gras Stores", which I suppose elsewhere would be costume & party stores.

Ritz Camera stores sell the other linty soft cotton variety.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-14-2005, 04:24 PM:
 
If you are skilled enough to handle the film by the edges only, and not get sweat or fingerprints on the film surface, I prefer bare hands. For those who are "all thumbs", or are handing original elements, high quality lint-free film editors gloves are best (nylon or polyester). Hard to keep cotton lint free during use.
 

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Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 07-15-2005, 02:01 AM:
 
When gloves are desired, I've found that Polygenex make the best. The "All-Day Photo Gloves" are made out of nylon and are lint-free, form-fitting, comfortable, and washable; if you have money to burn, the "All-Day ESD" (i.e., electrostatic discharge) are everything you could hope for in a film-handling glove.

However, at most I would wear a glove on one hand. Adhesives will ruin any fabric (lint aplenty) and can only be handled by a non-gloved hand. I also gave up high-speed film inspection with the Polygenex gloves because the film was cutting them (and they are relatively expensive)... yet I have never had my hands sliced by the film (thick skin, maybe?).

I do think that garden variety cotton gloves are worse than bare hands (when handling film by the edges only)... the lint is flying all over the place.
 

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Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 07-15-2005, 08:11 AM:
 
I always eat a jelly donut while handling film, and don't ware under ware. (Don't try this at home)
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-15-2005, 09:05 AM:
 

quote: Christopher Seo

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...yet I have never had my hands sliced by the film (thick skin, maybe?).

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