If you are looking for a (very) high resolution and (very) contrasty Black and white film, you have probably looked…
We have received several comments, that teaspoon measuring is not the preferred way in mixing up your caffenol brew, as…
A friend of mine recently told me about Diafine, a quite famous dual solution developer that is said to push mid tones by 1 stop. Diafine is a compensating developer, meaning you put in Solution A, let the film rest for 4 minutes with maybe 1 slow agitation per minute, pour out Solution A (both solutions can be reused) and then put in Solution B and let it develop further 4 minutes with agitation that is specific to the used film.
I was amazed about the tonality that the developer brings, and because I like experimenting, I thought why not try out something like that with Caffenol. Of course I knew that it will most probably not push the mids, and I cannot reuse the Caffenol mix, but it was fun for the experiment.
I would like to wish everyone of you a Merry, Merry Christmas. Thanks for all the comments, lovely pictures and ideas that you sent me in the last year. I hope I will have some more time next year to fill this blog with new recipes and experiments around caffenol.
See you next year,
Dirk
While sorting out my Camera Cabinet I found a Roll of exposed Kodak Portra 100T (Tungsten). This film is not available new anymore, used prices of expired film go from 6 to 20 EUROs.
I had no clue when, what and with which camera I shot it. That’s one of the things I like with analog film: You never really know what you get until you develop the roll. I developed it in Delta-STD for 14 minutes and it came out quite nicely, but most of the pictures where badly composed, under or overexposed, so I can only show 3 examples. From seeing the pictures I could identify the camera: My lovely Russian Rangefinder Zorki 4. I had no Lightmeter at the time, so exposure was off on most shots. Auto Levels in Photoshop gives a nice brownish toning, but that doesn’t work on all pictures, so I converted one of them to ‘real’ B&W.
You can buy new Kodak Portra films at macodirect.de the 160NC comes out beautiful in caffenol.
If you have other rare film, or normal film or any other film that you developed in caffenol, feel free to send me your results so I can post them here on www.caffenol.org.
It’s been a long time since there was an article here on caffenol.org and I know that some of you are really looking forward to see more pictures of prints developed in Caffenol. I have received very nice results from József, a Hungarian mechanical engineer, coffee addict and lover of analogue b&w photography and good wines.
József writes:
Caffenol came to my life as a crazy idea. Some months ago I found a short description of Caffenol in a Hungarian photography forum. It was enough to wake up the curiosity in me so I began to search for additional info about it. Then I decided to try… The first attempt was an expired (and forgot in the camera) Fuji Superia 400 colour negative. It worked, I had very promising result so I knew that I must go on with this coffee soup. But I found the paper development more exciting.
I’ve got hundreds of old Forte papers (some are 30 years old) to play so I used some of these for the first test. I chose some “unusable” frames to enlarge with very high contrast because I expected Caffenol to be a compensating developer. I was right, caffenol is absolutely suitable for hard negs. The following sample shows what I want to describe…
Ok, Forte was just to play. The second round was a serious work with my favourite paper: Fomatone MG Clasic. I have to say Fomatone loves coffee! It’s simply amazing. I love its tones (even in regular paper developer) and colours, because there’s no black and no white! (See befpass-1200.jpg in the attachment.) I tried Fomabrom Variant as well but it needs more time to find the suitable settings for this paper.
Technical details: I used a general recipe for papers: 900 ml water (I use distilled water) 12 tsp instant coffee, 6 tsp soda and 3 tsp vit C. Temp was 20 C. Since Fomatone is a variable contrast paper I used #2 filter from Ilford Multigrade filter set. I set the exposure for a standard 2 min development. As you mentioned Caffenol exhausts quite quickly so development time must be increased by 30 sec after each whole paper or 1 min after every second papers. I think the exhausting depends on the number of developed paper, not he time. You can work with the soup for hours if you don”t develop too much papers.At last my personal experience and advice: I recommend a wash directly after the development with the same temperature to prevent the clarity of your stop bath and fixer. This means, if you use stop bath, insert a tray between the developer and the stop bath filled with clear 20 C water. When you develop the 3rd paper, check the development after 2 min and decide if you need to increase development time. You have to take the paper out of coffee if you want to see anything. After 6-8 papers or if development time exceeds 4 min it’s recommended to mix a new soup. Agitation is important. I agitated continuously. When the development time is increased, the agitation should be continuous at least for the first 2 minutes.
I have to say I am very impressed by the results, and it matches my experience using caffenol as a paper developer: the amount of sheets counts, not the time of using caffenol as developer.
József is reachable through his website on http://www.designengineer.hu
As usual, if you have comments regarding this post, successful or even unsuccessful results of your caffenol experiments, or just nice pictures to share, feel free to give me a shout using the contact form.
Today I will post some pictures, that show how much fun experimenting with Caffenol can be.
Igor says:
“These pictures were taken about 3 years ago and were developed without any professional equipment in a pan. we were sitting in a dark bathroom stiring the film in caffenol with a spoon:) that is why those pictures are not so technically perfect. But it was all about fun. Also I should add that sea water was used as a fixer here.”
Yes, indeed those are far from being technically perfect, and I would not recommend using this technique for everyday purpose, and you should really use real fixer to make your pictures last long enough to show them to your grandchildren. But from an artistic point of view I think those are very good examples and show how much can be done with very little equipment. Just don’t hesitate to show what you are doing, in my opinion caffenol should be fun. And if the fun goes as far as fulfilling all your B&W development needs, that’s even better.
Check out my recipes, or the ones from Reinhold and you will have hours of fun. Or be crazy enough to develop you own recipes and be even more crazy and send me your results so everybody can have fun by looking at your wonderful pictures
More, but not caffenol related pictures from Igor can be found on his Flickr stream
I cannot repeat myself often enough, but if you have pictures, recipes, or even unsuccessful experience with caffenol, feel free to contact me.
Recently I wrote an article about an extremely cheap film, the wonderful Lucky SHD 100. Today I will post some images from a film that is on the more expensive side: Rollei Retro 100 Tonal. With EURO 5.36 It’s still cheaper then Ilford HP5, but more expensive then Ilford Delta 100 which is EURO 4.99 and shares the same boxspeed.
The Rollei Retro 100 TONAL is a medium speed black-and-white orthopanchromatic film with highest standard in grain quality and sharpness and highest dmax and a beautiful tonal range.
This film is the best choice for photographic applications like portraits, landscape, architecture, and duplication works.
Because of its clear support it is a best choice as slide material.
The emulsion is coated onto a transparent synthetic base providing excellent long-term and dimensional stability. This films has to be loaded in the camera and unloaded in subdued light. Before and after exposition always store the films in the black light-tight film-container. Not following these advices can cause light infiltration through the base material to the exposed pictures.
So what exactly is the difference between a panchromatic and a orthopanchromatic film?
In former times there where more orthopanchromatic films, so shooting on Rollei Retro 100 might give your shots a nostalgic touch. Nowadays the only orthopanchromatic films are Fuji Neopan Acros and Rollei Retro 100. All the rest is panchromatic.
This film has a clear film base and should be pre washed before developing to get rid of the antihalation layer. I might experiment with a pre wash in coffee later.
Let’s have a look at the pictures, developed in Delta-STD for 15 mins.
As usual, if you want to show your caffenol images here on www.caffenol.org, want to share your knowledge, or (even unsuccessful) results of your experiments, feel free to give me shout using the contact form.
Back in October 2009 I read some crazy stuff about developing expired color film in Coffee and Washing Soda, and was blown away about the results you could get with cheap instant coffee and cheap washing soda.
So I thought I’ll give it a try.
During Summer I was hunting for old cameras on several flea markets and already had done some shootings with them, but giving the films to the lab and letting them scan them.
After I read about this ‘caffenol’ thing, I bought a daylight Developing Tank from ebay, an Agfa Rondinax 35, some coffee and some soda.
I loaded some Fujicolor 1600 into my Zorki 4 and walked around through my flat. I don’t remember exactly which recipe I used and had no idea if it would work at all.
This is one of the first pictures I ever did in caffenol:
“Scanned” with a Pentax K10D using a self built slide duplicator made out of a box of Kellogs and black tape.It worked. And it hit me in a way, that most of things I shoot is now on Film, developed in caffenol. Of course in a much more improved way with my or your recipes. And even as sucessful to have a picture featured in the flickr blog:
So far, there are 41 articels on this site, meaning roughly a new article every 1 1/2 weeks.
29,628 People have visited this site so far, on average there are 220 Visitors each day.
www.caffenol.org is listed in wikipedia and is usually in the top 3 if you search for caffenol in Google.
So I would like to thank all of you that advertise my blog, comment on my pictures on flickr, and all of you that send me wonderful pictures developed in caffenol. All of you will be published, I promise. A special thanks goes to Reinhold from caffenol.blogspot.com who pushes caffenol to a level that competes with commercial developers and tries to standardise the way we measure and mix up our soup.
Thank you all. And Happy Birthday www.caffenol.org
Apologies from my side, for the moment, I do not recommend using Rollei Retro 400S for caffenol, because my results are somewhat inconsistent with this film. One came out totally black, and one came out totally underdeveloped. I have just loaded another 400S into my trusty Olympus XA and will try again.
![| []](http://www.caffenol.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Scan-110225-0002.jpg "| []")
Another Testbatch from MACO to test development times in caffenol arrived and this time it is a panchromatic film from Rollei, the Rollei Retro 400S, or RR400S for short. I was not so confident that this film works, as I once tried a film from a single use camera from Rollei which should feature the same film, but this film came out totally black. The film comes in a Twinpack and if you buy the set of 5 packs (10 films) it costs EURO 2,45 per roll, which is acceptable, I think.
It can be applicated for any general purpose and is suitable for almost every professional tasks. Owing fine grainess, the exposure range of practically one f=stop over- and underexposure capacity, prints can be achieved with an excellent sharpness and contrast, as well as high edge sharpness.
It really is relabeled Agfa APX 400, but 30 cents cheaper and it is available as 120 film as well. Results are more then acceptable, developed in Delta-STD for 14 minutes. The only Lesson I have learned is that I really need a Lenshood for my Tamron 28-80. Here are the pictures for your enjoyment:
I got a testbatch from MACO of Lucky SHD 100, a very popular Film used by Photography students in the UK. No wonder, this film is almost cheaper then bread. If it could be eaten, I would. If you buy a set of 10 Films, you pay about EURO 1,62 per film.
“Lucky New SHD 100, with high clarity, wide exposure latitude, and good physical characteristics, can meet various requirements such as high-temperature and high-humidity. It features processed functions of resisting adhesion and scratch, and widely used in portrait, adv, landscape, journey and art photography etc.”
I had a nice phone conversion with MACO, talking about this film and they state, that the emulsion itself is indeed very good with fine grain and good resolution, but the film base is somewhat below the standard quality and the Film is missing an anti-halo layer. However, this can be used to create creative effects if you shoot with the sun from the side or shoot directly into the sun.
Here are my examples, shot at EI 100, developed for 14 minutes in Delta-STD:
on the last two pictures you can see, what happens if you shoot directly into the sun. I quite like the effect.
Reinhold also has an article about Lucky SHD 100 in Caffenol-C-M
As usual, if you want to show your caffenol images here on www.caffenol.org, want to share your knowledge, or (even unsuccessful) results of your experiments, feel free to give me shout using the contact form.
If you are looking for a (very) high resolution and (very) contrasty Black and white film, you have probably looked at Agfa Copex Rapid film already, but have not ordered it because it’s high price (about EURO 6,– per Roll). I got some testrolls recently from Maco Direct to try how it behaves in caffenol. This film is not so easy to handle and there is not so much information about it, as it is specified as microfilm and can be used in x-ray cameras. Resolution is about 600 lines/mm (Fuji Velvia 50 is rated to resolve 160 lines per millimeter) so the film will outperform any Lens you have, easily. It complies to ISO 10602 and has a life expectance of 500 years. The Film base is made of PET and curls like Hell, even if you hang it with film weights. The emulsion scratches easily when wet, so please give this film a good wash before you wipe it, or don’t wipe it at all.
For high contrast Microfilms I have made some adjustments to the Delta-STD recipe, but I don’t think that I am there, yet. Here is the recipe for 1l stock:
As you can see, the amount of coffee is reduced quite a lot here, but soda has increased a bit. I think lowering the Vitamin C could lead to not so contrasty images, so I will try this next, together with adjusting the time. Development time here was 17 minutes at 22 degrees C, The Film was exposed at ISO 32, I think ISO 40 is easily doable, even ISO 64 should be fine .
The film came out slightly overdeveloped, and what really looks stunning is that this film has a completely clear film base. It looks almost like Ilford XP2.
So let the pictures speak for themselves:
If you have any suggestions on how to develop microfilms in caffenol or even have done some developments of this film in caffenol, feel free to send me a message using the contact form
We have received several comments, that teaspoon measuring is not the preferred way in mixing up your caffenol brew, as it is very inaccurate and ’1 teaspoon’ can mean from 1 to 5 grams, depending how big your teaspoon is.
Reinhold from caffenol.blogspot.com has developed some very good base recipes, using only litres and grams, and especially his chart at http://caffenol.blogspot.com/2010/08/recipes.html can be extremely useful, I just find it irritating that coffee is not on top of the list of ingredients 
As I want people to experiment and develop their own variations of caffenol (and share them of course), I was using teaspoon measuring, as you don’t need to have a special scale to start developing in caffenol. For medium speed film you can just use any teaspoon and the Delta Recipe and you will get a picture from the film.
But I also see that many people want to try out exactly what others have discovered, and so I have measured down the ingredients of the Delta Recipe. So from now on, I will give all the recipes in grams and litres, but will in addition keep teaspoon measures to get you developing even if you don’t have a special scale. Oh, here is the teaspoon I am using since my very first tries with caffenol, and everything from the Delta Recipe so you see how much of everything it is. My teaspoon translates to 2.5g coffee, in case that helps you.
Above you see volumes needed for 350ml of caffenol:
So for 1l that translates into:
There you have it, Delta-STD, suitable for any kind of film, gives great results with low speed (ISO 100-200) colour films, and medium speed (ISO 400) B&W films with a nice grainy look:
Rollei RPX 400 in Delta-STD
The recipes will be updated soon to include standardized weights and teaspoon measuring.
Next up is a write up of scales, so you know which kind of scale you need to buy, or might already have in your household.
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Smena Symbol – The other LOMOI just love going on a flea market and buying any camera that the owner is willing to give away for under 5 EURO. Just like this wonderful Smena Symbol. A plastic camera from Russia, made in the LOMO factory. It features a 40mm f4 lens and weather symbols as additional shutter speed scale. The lens has a stepless aperture, which doubles as ISO setting. You can read more about this camera on Camerapdia.
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Caffenol goes AstrophotographyThere is not so much happening here at the moment, because I have bought too many cameras in the last weeks and need to finish all the films. But I am quite excited about one event that will take place next week. We will head towards Sudelfeld and shoot at about 1700 meters height. And will shoot the stars. Mostly digital Cameras will be used, but I will take some analog equipment with me to shoot star trails throough the whole night. And to add some crazyness, I will of course then develop the whole lot of films in caffenol.
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