My Favourite B&W Film is Ilford Professional Delta 400 for the moment. I really like the grain shape of this film: soft and round.
Whenever I plan to do Caffenol Development, I overexpose the Film by 1/2 or stop, but that’s just me. As usual on negative film: Expose for the shadows. I will not go too deep into Zone Metering, but maybe it is worth mentioning it from time to time.
The things you need, supposing you have developed film before, are:
- Instant coffee with caffein
- washing soda
- Vitamin C powder, or tablets
I mix Coffee and Soda seperate, as it makes it easier to see if the Soda is completely dispersed.
150ml Water, 6 rounded Teaspoons Instant Coffee (15 grams)
200ml Water, 4 leveled Teaspoons Washing Soda (8 grams)
Mix all together, add 1 Teaspoon of Vitamin C (7 grams)
Let solution stand for about 5 minutes to clear microbubbles.
9:00 minutes at 20 degrees, fix and rinse as usual.
“Balconies” Leica M6, 35mm f2, Ilford Delta 400
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Nice.
Here you talk about Vitamin C tablets. is ther any commercial brand I should search for ?
What is the Vitamin C content in these ?
Thanks a lot for sharing you knowledge !
Very nice guide and keep up on your works with caffenol, im also experimenting with other brands usually color films and some black&white too like Agfa or Kentmere brand.
Here are some images of my work using caffenol
http://a.imageshack.us/img267/181/62595031.png
http://a.imageshack.us/img832/7758/scan00021.jpg
Hi, this caffenol blog it’s very intresting.
I try to develop kodak gold 200 in this recipes and I follow the film chart but it dont’t work.
Explain better. I use ascorbic acid that it can be the same of vitamin C, 6 Tsp of coffee and 4Tsp Washing Soda. In the film chart kodak gold 200 call 11 min in 20 C° and i do it.
I wash and fix with Ilford Rapid Fixer, but the film como out undevelop. I have the coat too delicate and it come away with nail scrape but don’t develop. Where is mistake? It can be possible that the film it was expired and dont develop?
Thanks to all
Mauro
First, I love this site and the other links related to Caffenol. I am new to film and developing and can’t wait to try this out. My main question is the total quantity of fluid to be used. I see a lot of varying volumes, probably due to developing tank size. My question is how much of the tank should be filled with the solution? I just bought a used stainless steel tank with two reels. I measured the water level so that both reels were just covered in water, @ 450ml. If I am developing just one reel, do I fill the entire container (450ml) and base my measurements on that? Or I’ve seen some recipes for a 350ml solution, which would cover one reel for sure in my tank. I’ve never developed before and will be trying this with some old Fred Meyer brand color neg, 200 asa film I just shot as well as some Tmax 400 and tri x 400. I would love some advice and or direction please.
Chris,
That’s a very good question, that I never asked my self as I have a tank for one film and several for two films. You for sure have to put in both reels to prevent the lower one from moving and not getting stuck when you agitate. I would then fill the tank so the lower reel is fully covered in developer and add a bit more just to be safe.
Of course if you are planning to develop single films more often I would advice you to buy a single film tank.
Thanks Dirk,
I think I’ll try it both ways at first and see which works best. Hopefully with practice I’ll feel confident developing two rolls at once, possibly get a one reel tank as well.
Hi, i am going to be trying out this recipe tomorrow, and I have a package of .500mg vitamin C pills.
how many pills should i use for a good batch?
the recipe calls for 7g..so should i use 14? or more?
also, do you add the vitamin c to the coffee mixture, or the washing soda mixture before combining the two in the tank?
thank you!
Logan,
I have no experience with those pills, I use plain Acorbic Acid which can be bought in a drugstore here in Germany.
If you try it out, I would add 2 more minutes for developing, just to be on the safe side.
I understand that at 9 minutes developing time, this is agitating development, not semi-stand or stand development?
This is with 10 inversions every minute.
The image is quite grainy, especially for panx 50. Anyway to reduce the graininess???
The picture in this post is 1999 expired Delta 400, so grain is expected to show up.
Oh, my mistake. But even for 400, the grain is high isn’t it?
If producing in a colder climate? Say 16*C what would the timings look like?
Hi, look here for time/temp conversions.
http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart-mobile.php?doc=timetemp
The Delta STD is the formula I have gotten my best results from to date. Thanks for sharing it.
I tried some expired tmax 400 shot at 200ei, using double quantity of vitamin c, with 4 inversions per minute but could barely make out the frames. Perhaps it was the coffee was too ‘expensive’. Will try again with cheaper coffee and more agitation.