Recipe on caffenol.org

Technical Pan in Caffenol-SMT / Mini Workshop

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I recently asked in the Caffenol Facebook group how I should shoot a roll of Kodak Technical Pan. Many people suggested I should shoot it at EI 25 or 50, but I also wanted to know if it is possible to get something useful out of it in EI 200. I took a stroll around a small lake near my workplace and fired away.

When the roll was exposed, I wanted to do something crazy, so I asked again on Facebook in which recipe it should be developed. After 9 suggestions and some calculations by averaging ingredients and times, I had my recipe. For the moment it is called Caffenol-SMT (Caffenol-SoMeThing).

Hot Coffee

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Someone in the caffenol Facebook group asked if there is a faster development process then caffenol, and I referred him to Diafine, a quite fast 2 step developer. (3+3 minutes for most films.) At the same time I thought that this should allbe possible with normal caffenol, as it is possible with all film developers: You increase temperature, you reduce time. Normally, higher temperature adds contrast, but if you develop for too short (temperature too high), you may get uneven development.

Wineol – Red Wine developer

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Niklas Rühl posted a picture in our Facebook Group of a negative developed in Wineol, an alternate devolper that is made out of Red Wine, Washing Soda and Vitamin C. The whole process and some really nice pictures can be seen on his website. The site is in German,so here is a google translation. I knew already that it is possible to mix up other developers which are based on Washing Soda and Vitamin C, but never really had the interest to try it. But as I did some enlargements recently, why don’t try it as a paper developer. That said I took the cheapest Red Wine I have and mixed up some developer. As I always use plenty of Vitamin C in my recipes, I used the following formula:

Fomapan 400 in Caffenol-STD – Experiments and Results. And Large Format

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This is an article of fine art figure photographer Scott Nichol from Allentown, PA, USA. You can visit his blog at http://www.silverystars.com/somanystars/. The Original article can be found here.

I wanted to experiment with the recipe for a coffee-based film developer commonly called Caffenol. Dirk Essl at caffenol.org does an excellent job of keeping track of development times for lots of different films that can be developed with Caffenol. However, most of the films that have been developed using this unique developer were films like Ilford HP5+ and Delta 400, neither of which I had any 4×5 stock at the moment. I did, however, have a good supply of Fomapan 400 and seeing as how development times for Fomapan and the Ilford films were similar, I decided to have a go at it. Initially, I decided just to follow the recommendation for Ilford Delta 400 of 9 minutes at 68°F.

Agfa Copex Rapid in Delta-MICRO

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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.

The Delta Recipe Goes Standard.

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 🙂

Caffeafine (Using Caffenol-C as 2 step developer)

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Harmony Recipe

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Josh Harmon was kind enough to share his caffenol recipe and sent me two nice pictures, developed in caffenol. They show how flexible caffenol is, and that there is enough room for experiments.
The films he tried are Arista EDU 100 (fomapan 100) and an old TMAX 100:

Locked Gate, Arista EDU 100

The Delta Recipe (Delta-STD)

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

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.