Kafenol 327 R

Fuji Superia 100, Kafenol 327R,  2. film in succession

Developed for 23 min @ 20C, standard agitation

No adjustment - straight scan

Fuji Superia 100, Kafenol 327R,  2. film in succession

Developed for 23 min @ 20C, standard agitation

Enhanced via scanner software, just one click  (Click to enlarge)

Kodak Gold 200, Kafenol 327R, #4 film in brew

Developed for 24,25min @ 20 centigrade standard agitation

No adjustment - straight scan

Kodak Gold 200, Kafenol 327R, #4 film in brew

Developed for 24,25min @ 20 centigrade standard agitation

Enhanced via scanner software, just one click  (Click to enlarge)

Kodak Gold 200, Kafenol 327R, #4 film in brew

Developed for 24,25min @ 20 centigrade standard agitation

No adjustment - straight scan

Kodak Gold 200, Kafenol 327R, #4 film in brew

Developed for 24,25min @ 20 centigrade standard agitation

Enhanced via scanner software, just one click

This was a very foggy day!  (Click to enlarge)

The marks on the lefthand side has to do with scanner idiosyncracies.

Kafenol 327.  (my standard as far as teaspoons etc goes: see blog here "measurements and stuff")

Kafenol 327 is simple :
Water to fill 11 US fl oz
Washing soda (Na2CO3) 3 teaspoon
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 2 teaspoon
Instant coffe (brazero) 7 teaspoon
This will be enough for one tank 35mm film
Develop for 15 minutes @ 20 deggree centigrade as a starting point.

For extended use, one of course need to increase development time, just as with D76 and other commersial developers.
I have come up with a combined regime for extending times and replenishing the brew from film to film.  This has been suggested by others, its not for me to brag about, but I don't think others have put it into system.

Replenisher:
Add one teaspoon of instant coffe per film, after the first.
Add one pinch of Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder) per film, after the first.

This a very simple, reliable procedure and takes no time, it is easy to develop films in straight succession, just save the developer, add the replenisher and top up volume to 11 oz.
Development times.

This is a little more involved.
General procedure, increase development 15% from the previous time, thusly :
 Start time = T

T ,   Tx1.15 ,  (Tx1.15)x 1.15 , .......

Example generic B&W film,  T = 15
15, 17.25 , 19.9 ,  22.9 ,  26.3 ,  30.2 ,  34.7


I hace come to the conclusion that films from different manufacturers need different starttimes, and hence a different time table.
I do a lot of cross-processing, developing C41 color-negative film as B&W, different colorslide films as B&W, including old Kodachrome, which should be cheap the coming year...

Kodak Gold 200 needs ca 16 minutes as a starting point
Fuji Superia 100 needs more time, 19 - 20 minutes in my experience (my first tries with Fuji and the then recommended 12 minutes was failures, longer times fixed that)

The following time-tables are recommended:

Kodak Gold 200,   T=16
16,  18.5,  21.2,  24.3,  28,  32.2,  37

Fuji Superia 100,    T= 19
19,  22,  25.1,  29,  33.2,  38.2,  44

NB!  There is no problem switching from filmtype to filmtype, just determine a starting point, and calculate a time-table for your film.

And you can do this as you go:
For instance start with 2 Fuji films, follow the timetable, then switch to standatd (B&W) films and read off the time for film #3, then switch to Kodak Gold 200 (or other Kodak C41 films), read off time for film #4 and so on.

I have tried this for myself, mixing films with excellent results, pictures from this 4 successive films will be shown here.

Good luck!

Where does this end - really?

more updates

Today I did the 7th and last in the same brew, replenished and did the rest of the Kodak Gold 200 that was cut in half.
I came upon a thought : along the way I replenished, and topped up with water.  Now that...... is plain WRONG!
Because it dilutes the soda and lowers pH, since I loose about 1/2 an oz per film (close to 20 ml which is the same amount of fixer that remains in tank during washing.... BTW), this means during my streak of successes here I have added 7 x 20 = about 120ml maybe 150 ml.
Now I started with 320 ml and has almost added another 50%, that means the soda is down to only 2/3 concentration, bordering on my own CCI (intermediate) mix, and half way down to Reinholds' CCL mix.
That means a LOT less activity, even if I keep adding coffe and Vit C.
So for the last film I added my replenisher, 1 ml Vit C and 5 ml coffe (1 pinch and 1 tsp, respectively), THEN I added 5 ml soda.
When I first added the Vit C and Coffe, there was some microbubbles, but after the soda it started bubbling like fresh brew!
I developed nearly the same as the last #6 film, 33 minutes @ 20 degree celcius, and now the film is finished and drying.
It came out with beautiful, immensely strong negatives, like fresh brew, with prolonged development!

update

As stated earlier I was continuing this test: I have now reached 5 films, replenished in one brew. The last and fifth was a Fuji Superia X-tra 400, 400 ISO expåosed box-speed.
It now seems I have reached the end, I have stored the developer for two full days (50 hours) and the negatives came out extremely thin even after Replenisher additives and prolonged development.

However, I have earlier had misfortune with Fuji C41 films in Kafenol, and even if I used the long development times as a base for calculating time here, it might still be a case of Fuji-trouble.

So the final nail will be another Kodak Gold, up for testing by tomorrow nite (75 hours of storage), I will go find another film for testing by tomorrow, I was meaning to venture out doing a bit of documentary photography for the local Historical society anyways, bringing another camera that shares lenses to my digital SLR is not even a nuisance.

L8er

***********************

As I said last week I'm testing out Kafenol 327 as a developer that can be used for several films.

Last week Itested out 3 films back to back, and all came out well. I came up with a sort of replenisher just like we know from D-76 for instance, and my guesswork as far as lengthened developing times was close to spot on.

This week I have gone further. Last night I developed 3 films back to back, with good results, the films are dry the images scanned already, and will be published here a little later tonite.

I did save the developer from yesterday (had an empty  half-bottle of James'es irish whiskey here and used that to save what was left of my 11 oz of developer.

Today I replenished like yesterday and went on developing a Kodak Gold 200 (C41).
The film is now hung to dry and looks GOOD!  It will be scanned tonite and tomorrow and results show together with the others.

But the question now is : where does it end? Can I go on to 10 films from one brew, replenished as necessary?

Is ALL the talk about the transiency of ascorbate and coffe just baloney?  Does the ingredients behave just like any other ordinary develope?

Well I for one will go on testing, I have saved my remaining 10.5 oz of developer back onto the whiskey-bittle, and - if I find a suitable film by tomorrow night, try developing film #6 in the same brew, just to see when this developer dies....

Specific weight of coffe grain

There have been some talk of replacing instant coffe with ordinary coffe brewed a little stronger than normally.

I thought it might be interesting to know what we are dealing with, so here goes.

I brew coffe every day and measure out my coffe with a measure marked "10 gram", nothing else.

I did measure up 20 measures of WATER and noted the volume pretty close to 0,5 litre, more like 0,49 liter to be exact.

This should be approx 490 gram of water, and 24,5 gram per measure.
In other words every measure is 24,5 gram = 24,5 ml = 24,5 CC.

Now IF the weight noted is exactly 10 gram, we have a specific weight :

10 / 24,5 = 0,408 gram / CC

I checked that with a few grains of coffe (expensive stuff NOT to be wasted!) It did most assuredly float on water, so the specific weight is definitely below 1,00.

The next time I brew a pot of water, later today, I will take the opportunity to weigh the coffe, I use 4,5 measurer per pot, and will weigh that.  I wiill then update spec. weight for coffe.

Update :

I did weigh the coffe for one brew, turns out the standard coffe measure around these shores, marked "10 gram" will hold approximately 9,5 gram for ordinary filter coffe.

Since I use 4,5 measures per litre of coffe, that means I use 42,5 gram per pot (a little less than I thought, I thought it was 45 gram.... that is a 5,5% discrepancy).

I know that scandinavians generally brew their coffe on the weak side, I have had coffe in company with arabs, they use a stronger brew! 

And I did brew twice as strong as my regular - at what I thought was 90 gram per litre, (which know is exposed to have been 85 gram per litre) to use as a soda-coffe developer, that was far stronger than arabic coffe again...

Kaffine - coffe alone does not work, an alternative

Da er en ny test underveis. Ekstrakt fra kaffegrut, kald IKKE UTKOKT denne gang, med 27 gram soda pr 350 ml kaffeekstrakt og med tilsats av 1,6ml Rodinal.
Dette blir spennende, uten Rodinal ble det overhodet ikke negativer, overhodet ikke tegning med slik ekstrakt.
Altså det fantes ikke spor av fremkaller-emner der.....
Time will sjåv, jeg må agitere tanken

Jeg må nesten le!
Da er det foreløpige resultatet klart.

Fremkalt i 320 ml 5X kaffe-uttrekk i en halv liter vann, altså samme KONSENTRASJON som første forsøk, tilsatt 17,35 gram krystall soda. her ble tilføyd 1,6ml Rodinal konsentrert.
(11 US fl. oz, 3 level tsp soda, 1,6 ml Rodinal stock)
Jessops SHR 100 fargenegativfilm.
Fremkalt i 30 minutter, stopp, fix og skyll som vanlig.
En rask kikk på negativene som henger til tørk viser at jeg har fått omtrent samme resultat som forrige forsøk, soda, pulverkaffe og Rodinal.
Jeg har gjort alt akkurat likedan, det eneste som er forskjellig er at jeg har brukt kaffegrut-ekstrakt i stedet for pulverkaffe.
Forrige gang jeg forsøkte dette, uten Rodinal-tilsats, fikk jeg overhodet ingen negativer, nå fikk jeg negativer som vil være godt kopierbare i mørkerom, på skanneren kommer de til å fungere like perfekt som siste forsøk, som er skannet.
Jeg kan ikke gi meg med dette, jeg MÅ prøve uten kaffe, med soda of Rodinal alene.
Også har jeg kokt en kjel STERK kaffe, som står til kjøling, 500ml vann pluss 9 kaffemål filterkaffe, kokt godt opp og satt til kjøing. Jeg trekker vanligvis kaffe på trakter og bruker 4,5 kaffemål pr liter traktekaffe. Jeg har nå kokt kaffe som er 4 ganger så sterk. Denne skal jeg ta 320 ml fra, blande med soda og se hva som skjer.
Det er for øvrig ikke tilfeldig at jeg har valgt å bruke 1,6ml Rodinal-tilsetning. Etter hva jeg kunne forstå av fyren som dreiv å fremkalte film i papirfremkaller, satte han til så mye som ca 1/4 konsentrasjon av fremkalleren sin, Ansco 130 (som ikke er å få her til lands dessverre).
Når jeg nå benytter 1,6ml, er det Rodinal i 1:200. Vi VET fra før at Rodinal kan brukes i så stor fortynning, men da må fremkallertiden opp i ca 70 minutter. Her er brukt bare 30 minutter, så litt har kaffe-innholdet bidratt med....
Men jeg fastholder "papirfremkallermannen" vet ikke hva han holder på med. Han har ikke gjort sammenlignende forsøk. Han tror han driver å fremkaller filmene sine i Caffenol - i virkelighetens verden fremkaller han med fortynnet papirfremkaller (som i utgangspunktet er mye mer konsentrert enn negativfremkallere).
Han tror han gjør dette pga KBr innholdet, i virkeligheten ville han ha fått flate og svært tynne engativer med kaffen aleine

Tri-fectum

3 films developed in quick succession from the same brew of CCH / CCM.

Canon Epoca, Boots Universal 400 (C41), ISO 400 Kafenol 327, 20 min @ 20C

Raw scan, no adjustments, fogging apparent, perfect exposure/development, soft.

First film developed in single brew.

Same as above, automatic enhancement, one-step in Canon Canoscan scanner.

Fujica ST605, Kodak Gold 200, ISO 200 Kaffenol 327, 18,5min @ 20C

Raw scan, no adjustments, no fogging apparent, perfect exposure/development.

Second film developed in single brew, 1 tsp coffe added.

Same as above, automatic enhancement, one-step in Canon Canoscan scanner.

Carl Zeiss Werra III, Kodak Gold 200, ISO 200 Kaffenol 327, 21min @ 20C

Raw scan, no adjustments, no fogging apparent, perfect exposure/development.

Third film developed in single brew, 1 tsp coffe and 1 pinch Vit C added.

Same as above, automatic enhancement, one-step in Canon Canoscan scanner.

Kaffenol as a normal developer

Today I mixed my usual 11 oz batch (320 ml) that will aloow me to develop one tank og 35mm film.

Standard Ascorbate CH /CM chemistry

Water to 1000 ml
Soda 54 gram
Vit C 16 gram
Coffe 40 gram
(KBr 0,75 gram)
Mixed in the order given.

The measures for 320 ml

Water to 320 ml
Soda 17,3 gram
Vit C 5,1 gram
Coffe 12,8 gram
(KBr 0,26 gram)
Mixed in the order given

I did my usual measure with standard US measures as I weighed out :

Water to 11 US fl. oz.
Soda 3 teaspoon plus 1 pinch
Vit C 2 teaspoon minus 1 pinch
Coffe 7 teaspoon plus one pinch
(KBr 0,26 gram)
These volumetric measures given here are accurate to 0,05 gram

As I had the developer ready I started with a Generic brand 400 ISO C41 color negative film.
Time 21 minutes @ 20 centigrade, normal stop, fix and wash, ISO 400

I added one teaspoon of coffe, and topped up water to 11 oz.

I continued with Kodak Gold 200 which is a film I have very good experience with :
Time 18,5 minutes @ 20 centigrade, normal stop, fix and wash, ISO 200

I added one more teaspoon of coffe, and one pinch of Vit C and topped up water to 11 oz again.

I ended up with another Kodak Gold 200
Time 21 minutes @ 20 centigrade.

MY normal development time for Kodak Gold is 16 minutes which gives me quite dense and contrasty negatives.  I have increased tiome from 15 minutes for this C41 film, since I found the negatives to be on the flat side.

So my normal development time for this C41 ISO 200 film would be:
16 min, 18,5 min, 21 min coffe and Vit C added as noted.

I incresed development time for the ISO 400 generic C41 film to 20 minutes and would have increased 15% for each sucessive film.

The results was so good it seems (film hang to dry now) that I wonder HOW many films is it possible to develop in one brew?

Totally I used 3 tsp, 1 pinch of soda, 2 tsp Vit C exactly, and 7 tsp, 1pinch coffe to develop 3 films, all seem a sucess, and I did this at a consderable saved cost.

I encourage other brave souls to give ths a try.

I will give examples of the picture qualøity of all these 3 films, hopefully tomorrow,.

Kaffine - coffen alone does not work, an alternative

Da er en ny test underveis. Ekstrakt fra kaffegrut, kald IKKE UTKOKT denne gang, med 27 gram soda pr 350 ml kaffeekstrakt og med tilsats av 1,6ml Rodinal.
Dette blir spennende, uten Rodinal ble det overhodet ikke negativer, overhodet ikke tegning med slik ekstrakt.
Altså det fantes ikke spor av fremkaller-emner der.....
Time will sjåv, jeg må agitere tanken

Jeg må nesten le!
Da er det foreløpige resultatet klart.

Fremkalt i 320 ml 5X kaffe-uttrekk i en halv liter vann, altså samme KONSENTRASJON som første forsøk, tilsatt 17,35 gram krystall soda. her ble tilføyd 1,6ml Rodinal konsentrert.
(11 US fl. oz, 3 level tsp soda, 1,6 ml Rodinal stock)
Jessops SHR 100 fargenegativfilm.
Fremkalt i 30 minutter, stopp, fix og skyll som vanlig.
En rask kikk på negativene som henger til tørk viser at jeg har fått omtrent samme resultat som forrige forsøk, soda, pulverkaffe og Rodinal.
Jeg har gjort alt akkurat likedan, det eneste som er forskjellig er at jeg har brukt kaffegrut-ekstrakt i stedet for pulverkaffe.
Forrige gang jeg forsøkte dette, uten Rodinal-tilsats, fikk jeg overhodet ingen negativer, nå fikk jeg negativer som vil være godt kopierbare i mørkerom, på skanneren kommer de til å fungere like perfekt som siste forsøk, som er skannet.
Jeg kan ikke gi meg med dette, jeg MÅ prøve uten kaffe, med soda of Rodinal alene.
Også har jeg kokt en kjel STERK kaffe, som står til kjøling, 500ml vann pluss 9 kaffemål filterkaffe, kokt godt opp og satt til kjøing. Jeg trekker vanligvis kaffe på trakter og bruker 4,5 kaffemål pr liter traktekaffe. Jeg har nå kokt kaffe som er 4 ganger så sterk. Denne skal jeg ta 320 ml fra, blande med soda og se hva som skjer.
Det er for øvrig ikke tilfeldig at jeg har valgt å bruke 1,6ml Rodinal-tilsetning. Etter hva jeg kunne forstå av fyren som dreiv å fremkalte film i papirfremkaller, satte han til så mye som ca 1/4 konsentrasjon av fremkalleren sin, Ansco 130 (som ikke er å få her til lands dessverre).
Når jeg nå benytter 1,6ml, er det Rodinal i 1:200. Vi VET fra før at Rodinal kan brukes i så stor fortynning, men da må fremkallertiden opp i ca 70 minutter. Her er brukt bare 30 minutter, så litt har kaffe-innholdet bidratt med....
Men jeg fastholder "papirfremkallermannen" vet ikke hva han holder på med. Han har ikke gjort sammenlignende forsøk. Han tror han driver å fremkaller filmene sine i Caffenol - i virkelighetens verden fremkaller han med fortynnet papirfremkaller (som i utgangspunktet er mye mer konsentrert enn negativfremkallere).
Han tror han gjør dette pga KBr innholdet, i virkeligheten ville han ha fått flate og svært tynne engativer med kaffen aleine

Kaffine, some sort of success, finally!

Omsider suksess.
Vi er kommet til neste kapittel i sagaen om god gammeldags Kaffi som fremkaller.
Jeg har prøvd blanding av soda og uttrekk av kaffebønner (kaffein-syre resten som det sies skal være i kaffebønnene etter at man har trukket kaffe i en orginal Melitta-kaffetrakter. Null resultat, ikke spor av bilder.
Jeg har prøvd en blanding av soda og pulverkaffe med betinget suksess. Negativene ble tynne og kontrastløse, som forventet.
I kveld bestemte jeg meg for å etterape en annen kar her på APUG :
Blanding av soda og pulverkaffe med tilsats av en liten dråpe kommersiell fremkaller!
Tanken står full av fixer nå, før jeg poster dette, henger jeg den opp til tørk, slik at jeg har førsteinntrykket.
Først blandingen
Vann inntil 320 ml
Soda 27,3 gram
Pulverkaffe 27,3 gram
Rodinal konsentrat 1,6 ml (1:200)
Amerikanske mål, for den som er interessert :
11 US fl. oz
3 teaspoon (5ml) soda
10 teaspoon (5ml), 2 pinch (1ml) inst. coffe.
Rodinal conc. 1.6 ml

Blandet i den gitte rekkefølge og ventet med å tilsette Rodinal inntil brusingen og boblingen fra kaffe-soda blandingen hadde gitt seg.
Jessops SHR 100 fargenegativfilm.
Fremkalte i 30 minutter ved 20 grader celsius, som sist.
Rodinal 1:200 krever minst 1 hel times fremkallingstid alene. Spenningen nå er om vi får vesentlig tettere og mer kontrastrike negativer enn uten disse knapt 2 milliliter med Rodinal!
**************************
Javel da foreligger resultatet, eller i det minste førsteinntrykket.
En stor suksess! For første gang etter jeg begynte denne forsøksserien med Kaffi (uten C vitamin) har jeg fått negativer som ser normale ut!
Eksponeringen ser ut til å stemme, gode kraftige negativer, som det vil være en smal sak å ta med i mørkerommet og som kommer til å funke på en skanner helt ypperlig!
Dette bare bestyrker mistanken : støyen og pratet her og andre steder om kaffebrenning og annet er rett og slett tull.
Man fremkaller med kommersiell fremkaller, soda forsterker muligens effekten, kaffe spiller ikke en sekundær rolle en gang, om det overhodet spiller noen rolle, er kaffe-komponenten i dette tilfellet av underordnet betydning.
Det vil si ikke i den blandingen jeg har testet i kveld. Pulverkaffe er en kjent størrelse, den er 6 til 10 ganger mere konsentrert enn kaffe som vi koker drikke av. I de kaffetypene vi har valgt å bruke (robusta, billigste type på COOP o.l.) finnes det godt med kaffein-syre, det er derfor den er så vond å drikke! Men kaffe alene gir dårlig fremkallereffekt med lav kontrast. Men virkelige gode resultater kom med Rodinalen, ikke pulverkaffen aleine!
Det blir å sammenligne med de alminnelig Metol-Hydrokinonfremkallerne som var populære i gamle dager. Erfaring viste at Hydrokinon aleine gav lav ISO og dårlig kontrast, men satte man til metol, ble resultatet god kontrast, god utnyttelse av ISO og sluttresultatet bedre enn med begge alene.
Nå gjenstår bare å ta en test eller kanskje to til, før jeg sier meg ferdig med dette: først en test med kaffekestraktet jeg statrtet med, som gav NULL resultat, jeg vil gjenta den med samme mengde Rodinal som i kveld. Så skal me sjå....
Også tror jeg jeg skal ta en ekstratest helt til slutt kun soda med samme mengde Rodinal som i kveld, for å fastslå hva som gjør hva!
Kjemi er moro. Foto og kjemi er enda mer moro - de som bare driver med digitale apparater kan umulig vite hva de går glipp av!

Kaffine, asessment after the first tries.

To be translated :

Jeg har kommet til at rapporten om suksess med dette er grunnleggende feil - på grensen av direkte falsk.
Nordmenn er et kaffedrikkende folk. Vi drikker mye mere kaffe enn nesten alle andre, bortsett fra Finnene sies det.
Imidlertid drikker JEG mye mer enn Finnene - til dels opp mot 5 for ikke si 10 ggr mer enn gjennomsnittet.
Den store mengden gjør at jeg nyter kaffe på en annen måte enn etterkommere av tedrikkende engelskmenn.
De drikker neppe mer enn en a to kopper pr dag - da har jeg knappast kommet meg ut av senga og tatt min morning-leak....
Men de drikker nok mye sterkere kaffe enn meg, de få koppene de drikker.
Jeg NYTER kaffesmaken i store volum, men relativ lav konsentrasjon.
Det er ikke mulig - IKKE mulig - å koke kaffe på min - på norsk måte, og ta resten av kanna som fremkaller, simpelthen fordi det ikke er nok kaffe der til å begynne med, typen kaffebønner er totalt uinteressant her!
Kaffein-syre er en naturlig bestandel i nærmest all plantevekst, det inngår som en del av den kompliserte omsetningen som foregår inne i cellene i alle planter.
Det er mer en tilfeldighet at den har fått det navnet den har, det har nok å gjøre med hvor det først ble funnet.
Det er neppe slik at det er ti ganger høyere konsentrasjon i en type kaffebønner i forhold til en annen, ingen har kunnet legge fram noe håndfast bevis på det.
Det er sikkert slik at det finnes i høyere konsentrasjon i andre planteslag, enn beintørre bønner.
Men vi har valgt kaffe i form av pulverkaffe pga noen enkle hensyn : det er lett å få tak i, det foreligger i en form som er godt egnet og enkel å bruke, tilførselen er forutsigbar og pga industriell fremstilling er kvaliteten forutsigbar.
De fleste som driver å skriver om dette på engelsk, har misforstått nesten alt:
For det første er det helt normalt å ta en kopp kaffe eller 4 om morgenen.
Det er normalt å kjøpe opptil flere typer kaffe, slik at man har litt å velge i.
Det er normalt å ha et par glass med pulverglass på luring, om man - skrekk og gru! - slipper opp for kaffe - eller kaffefilter!
Det er ingen som legger spesielt merke til lukten av nytrukket kaffe - vi drikker den - enkelt og greitt!
Men uten askorbinsyre er det en blanding for sveklinger for vårt formål.
Uten askorbinsyre blir resultatet, negativene, svake og kontrastløse.
Uten askorbinsyre blir resultatet nesten ikke kopierbart og kan kun skannes med store vansker.
Derfor må man ty til andre virkemidler for å late som om det funker uten vitamin C, det mest populære er å blande inn litt vanlig ferdigblandet fremkaller.
Og når man på forhånd har annonsert at man ikke tar det så nøye med MÅLENE, er det nok lett å lyve bitte lite granne om hvor mye man egentlig bruker av fremkaller.
En annen sideeffekt jeg oppdaget underveis i dette prosjektet:
Jeg har tidligere rapportert at Soda reagerer med askorbinsyre, danner natriumaskorbat som aktiv substans, og at dette følges av en lett synlig fargereaksjon, natriumaskorbat og soda gir en lett grøøngul væske. Jeg har etterpå sjekket dette når jeg veier ut kjemikalier og blander direkte - samme fargereaksjon. Den som ikke ser dette er enten fargeblind, eller bruker alt for lav konsentrasjon av kjemikaliene, eller blander ut i gulfarget elektrisk lys, hvor man ikke vil SE fargedifferensen.
Nå blandet jeg kun soda og kaffe, og la merke til noe av det samme.
Kaffe lukter kaffe før man blander med soda. Men etter blanding får man bobler i væsken, først store bobler med skum, deretter mikrobobler som trenger 10 - 15 minutter på å forsvinne.
Samtidig endres lukten, det er etter blanding med soda at den karakteristiske kaffenol-lukten oppstår, som så mange avskyr.
Den oppstår selvsagt pga en lignende mekanisme som for askorbinsyre, her angripes kaffeinsyra av sodaen som er til stede i stort overskudd, og kaffeinsyra omsettes til et fremkallermne, samtidig som gasser (reaksjonsprodukter) slippes fri og gir den karakteristiske lukten.
Så dette med kaffenol er nok slett ikke så enkelt og liketil som enkelte vil ha det til.

Kaffine - first try

I put up the norwegian version here at first - it will be translated L8er.

*****************
Total Fiasko
Total fiasko
1 stk Jessops C41 100ISO film, eksponert i Minolta Dynax 3000i.
Fremkalt i 320 ml 10X kaffe-uttrekk som skissert over, tilsatt 17,35 gram krystall soda.
(11 US fl. oz, 3 level tsp soda)
Fremkalt i 30 minutter, ved 20 grader celsius, normal agitasjon for såpass lang fremkallertid, 30 sek til å begynne med, deretter 3 tank-vendinger pr 2 minutter, mot slutten av fremkallertiden 3 tank-vendinger pr minutt.
30 minutter fremkallingstid.
Stoppebad 3 mellomskyllinger med 20 grader vann for å holde kaffe ute av fixerbadet og stoppe fremkalling med nøytralt pH vann.
Fixert 15 minutter med Ilford fix.
Filmen ble HELT BLANK, ikike antydning til tegning ikke spor av negativtegning.
Ettersom eventuell rest-kaffeinsyre er extrahert så godt det lar seg gjøre med normale midler, og konsentrasjonen er ca 10 ggr høyere enn skissert annetsteds, og ettersom ALL kaffe inneholder kaffein-syre til omtrent samme nivå (innefor 1/2 til 2 ggr) er dette IKKE en farbar vei.
Jeg skal kjøre gjennom en film i morgen, fremkalle med samme opplegg men med 20 gr kaustisk soda (lut, NAOH) bare for å slå dette fast en gang for alle, og runde av med en film fremkalt med pulverkaffe og soda alene.
Det er ingen bilder å legge ut på den andre gruppa, det ser ut som en ueksponbert film og det kan jeg garantere at filmen var - korrekt eksponert mener jeg.
Bummer.

Kaffine - soda and coffe alone.

As I see it the first rumors about coffe/Vit C based developers was based on just soda and coffe. What I've seen in archives was a lot of under-developed, under-exposed, mishandled films. Some got away with that, presenting this as "art", that is OK, to each his own.

In my book the great watershed in the history of Coffein developers was when ascorbic acid was added to the brew, before that everything was more or less haphazard, after that a number of excellent workers did appear, who demonstrate excellent work, that seem repeateble.

But when some folks started boasting about these early experiments again, I decided to set up and run a string of tests, exploring in greater detail what can be achieved here. Since I control this blog better than various Flickr, APUG and other accounts, I will go back update my experience with just soda and coffe and present the pickueres achieved, if any.

Kaffi.

For the caffenol enthusiasts, a question was fielded, a question that deserves an answer : What are the difference between ascorbate-based developers and pure coffe-and-soda-based developers?

Coffe. The third and possibly most mystic ingredience in the grassroot movement to ensure that we have acess to a reliable developer, after that the industry and supplies have dried out. Not many knows in detail what IS inside a cup of coffe.

Scandinavians need to ask noone about coffe, especially the norwegians, known to be among the most cofee-drinking people on this planet. I drink the stuff in bucketfuls, and really enjoy a cup or five! Except for the odd glass of water, I hardly drink anything else on a daily basis.

We are hunting for just ONE ingrediet in the beans, so a quick look at the scandinavian way of brewing coffe.
Coffe-beans contains many poorly described ingredients, the stimulant I am so dependent upon is not on our agenda.

On the contrary - we are after one of the acids in the beans, and substances that stem from this. These acids and their relatives are described to be a step in the natural development of most plant cells, so contrary to popular belief, we can expect to find this substance in most living plants. It is part of the natural photosynthesis, and it is known as Caffeic acid.

Various types of coffe beans are said to contain varying levels of this substance, this acid, this is largely a claim, I have found no hard documentation on this. Alos, it is said that other plants may contain substantially more of this substance, tea is mentioned, and cucumbers especially are said to be a good source, with high levels of caffeic acid.

Since teas comes from plant leaves, and cucumbers have totally different makeup than dry beans, probably the TYPE of coffe-beans carries less importance than generally thought.

The special way coffe-beans are treated is of interest. Roasting is but another name of frying in a large pan. The beans are burnt under low & controlled heat. Roast long enough and all what is left is charcoal, related to whats inside black powder.

Most likely the level or concentration of both coffeine and caffeic acids are reduced close to zero in charcoal, together with other substances found in coffe beans like different waxes, oils and fats., they will all be burnt away.

Roasting has to do with TASTE, during roasting the chemical composition inside the beans changes, while the outer skin of the beans are reduced more to a coal-like substance.

The caffeic acids are said to be degraded by heat, into oils and fats, and the concentration are reduced more the longer and harder they are heated. The degradation products are fats and waxes among others, which will burn up the longer the process takes. This is quite complex organic chemistry, still, as far as I know, little studied, since roasting coffe is first and foremost a parctical industial process, where the point of balance remains somewhere between an atrprocess and a prure industial process.

Looking further ahead, to what takes place in a kitchen, where the end result is drinking coffe, one out of two processes seem to rule, first boiling, which in fact isnt boiling, but adding ginded beans to water that is at the boiling point, leaving the brew to cool a little while coffe is extracted before serving it. It is known to be of importance to seperate the residual beans from the drinking brew quickly or the coffe will turn acid, and nearly undrinkable.

Just follow this thread.

It is then quite relevant to draw a conclusion that the ordinary coffeepreparation functions thusly, we extract substances that we want, coffeine and other tasty stuff, from substances we don't want, fats, xxxx and coffeine acid, simply by PROCESSING TIME.
What is left the spent coffee grains, should then contain most of the cafeine acid, while we enjoy delicious coffee.

Then what lies ahead is an interesting experimentn : reclaiming the caffeic acid from the leftover grains, and try using this as a developing agent!

This could be done quite independently from type of beans and other tall talk about offee roasting at the kichen-bench, one uses known methods from ordinary chemistry and get ahold of a concentrate.

To be translated :


For mitt vedkommende skisserer jeg følgende fremgangsmåte ; fra hvert filter fra min Melitta kaffetrakter, som er betegnet som en av markedets beste, med særlig kort behandlingstid, anbefalt av Norsk kafferåd, tar jeg kaffebønnene som ligger i filteret, og dumper i en kjele med vann.

Dette innholdet koker jeg ved svak varme i 15 minutter og lar blandingen stå inntil den er kald. Deretter separeres bønner og vann og ekstrakten oppbevares.Denne ekstrakten benyttes så til å utvinne kaffeinsyre fra 10 påfølgende kaffekokinger, inntil vi har et konsentrat, underveis vil det selvsagt tilsettes små mengder ferskt vann til skylling, samtidig som inntil 1/3 av vannet fordamper under koking. Man ender således opp med et godt konsentrat, og forhåpentligvis mye syre.
Nu deler jeg konsentratet i to, en del benyttes til vidre fangst inntil jeg har konsentrat fra 20 kaffekokinger. Den andre delelen benyttes til første eksperiment:
To filmer identisk eksponert i samme kamera sammenlignes.
1. film fremakalles med ren Kaffenolfremkaller, basert på amerikansk resept fra Digital Thruth, og med instant kaffe og så mange teskjeer som respten sier. Ingen KBr, ingen vitamin C, kun rein kaffe.
2. film fremkalles med ekstraktet som er fremstilt, så mange milliliter som er nødvendig for 1 fremkaller-tank, med tilsats av så mange teskjeer soda som DT-respten sier.
evt kaffeekstrakt-overskudd kan brukes til film nr 3:
3. film fremkalles med ekstraktet, like mye soda og tilsatt så mye vitamin C som DT-respten sier.
Deretter gjentaes eksperimentet med 2 eller 3 filmer, identisk eksponert og fremkalt og sammelignet med ekstrakt fra 20 kaffekokinger.
Først nå sammenligner man de ferdige resultatene, og avgjør om det er noen forskjell mellom pulverkaffe og kaffeekstrakt og om dette er en farbar vei og gå.
Det tar meg 2 - 3 dager å skaffe nok ekstrakt til å sette i gang. Om nødvendig kan man selvsagt samle opp ekstrakt fra 30 eller 50 kaffekokinger om resultatet skulle bli tynt....
Jeg har satt film i en nyinnkjøpt Minolta Dynax 3000i........... Rapport følger.

Har nå samlet opp kaffegruten fra de siste to kaffekannene fra traktern' og "utvunnet" kaffeinsyra som er igjen som rest i kaffegruten når vi dekanterer over kaffen i kaffekopp og kaffekanna.
Fra 10 kokinger laget jeg 1 liter ekstrakt. Denne literen skal jeg bruke som rein kaffe-fremkaller etter forslaget fra "papir-fremkaller-mannen".
Jeg planlegger ganske enkelt å ta 350 ml av dette ekstraktet, tilsette soda (54 gram x (350/1000) = 19 gram soda og fremkalle en film.... skal ut å svi av en gammal Kodak Gold-film i morra og fremkalle til kvelds.
Så skal jeg sammenligne med en film fremkalt i en blanding av 19 gram soda og 14 gram vanlig pulverkaffe og se hvilken fremkaller som gir de beste negativene.
Deretter skal jeg ta 350 ml af kaffegrut-ekstrakten og tilsette 10 gram lutperler (kaustisk soda) og gjenta for å se om høyere pH gir kraftigere kaffe-fremkaller.
Jeg lover å ha fullt sikkerhetsutstyr, vannavkjølt bad for å forhindre koking når kaustisk soda tilsettes og løses (forsiktig!) og vernebriller før jeg blander ut kaustikksoda!
Rapport følger
L8ER

Kaffenol - a one-shot developer?

Since talk about coffe and ascorbate developers surfaced on the Net, they have been surrounded by a lot of myths.

Quite funny is all the exaggerated statements about the fact that coffe is used as a developer, especially from places where coffe is still seen a something exotic to drink. A lot of talk about developing the films in coffee, and then drinking the stuff!
As usual just tall stories, from people that know little about both coffe and developers....

However, one statement has stood out from the beginning :

Vitamin C will not keep. So it has to be used within half an hour from mixing and then be discarded immediately. That's what they all say.

Personally I challenged this from the word go, and developed the technique of Stock solutions - that has just recently been picked up by others.

Stock solutions will keep, if the ingredients are dissolved, and kept in tree separate bottles at 3X concentration, the stock solutions will keep easily for two months, and in use one just measure out 1/3 of the required volume from each bottle, eventually add KBr from the 10% stock solution....

But whatabout mixed developer, all ready to go?

It will keep. You can rest assured you can keep it overnight and use it the next day, easily.

More, no need to discard the developer after developing one film, either.
I now use my Kaffenol 327 this way: I mix 320 ml of developer, then I load two tanks, one 135 film in each.

I first develop the first film and have settled on 16 minutes at 20 degree centigrade as a good starting point.

Then I collect the used developer, and add one or two teaspoons of instant coffe, tops up the volume to 320 ml (11 fl.oz.) and develop the second film.

One can even develop one film in one night, and then wait until the next before developing the next film.

If anything the second film seems more contraty than the first, I probably could get away by replenishing the developer with just one teaspoonful of coffe.

I intend to test out with 3 films developed in one and the same night, repleneishing with one teaspoonful of coffe per film, topping up volume as needed.

Some have been complaining about the cost of Kaffenol, well, there you have it, a safe and surefire way of slicing the cost in half!

What IS a teaspoon?

These are my volumetric measuring devices.

From left to right : Tablespoon, Teaspoon, 1/2 Teaspoon and 1 Pinch
These have a volume of 15ml, 5ml, 2.5ml and 1ml respectively.



In order to use these, you'll need to CALIBRATE the volumes vs weight for each substance, and every time you change anything, like you get a new box of lets say soda, you need to ascertain the weight vs volume, by weighing out and checking vs previous measurements.

No big deal, really.

My wife bought these measures in a set, I have "lent" them, so far without any repercussions!

How to use a teaspoon? Well since we are having a discussion across time-divides and geographic dvides, the most important is to establish a baseline.

US and british measurements are totally unsuitable for this, we need to use a standard, a prescise and universal standard, that always needs to be the baseline standard.

AND THAT STANDARD IS AND WILL REMAIN METRIC MEASUREMENTS.

Always when discussing recipes, they are meaningless, unless the data is backed up by grams and millilitres, anything else will give rise to misinterpretations, uncertainity and bad results and incomprehensible catastophes, with no images on film.

However once established, weight can be measured out quickly, repeatable, and prescise by volume - if one knows HOW.

Using measures - know your powder!

Soda, ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, KBr - these are chemicals, and easy to measure out by volume. If one does this RIGHT, the variation from batch to batch will even be less than by weight measured from an old, cheap weight, even modern electronic weights are sometimes less prescise, since they often don't have the RESOLUTION needed.

Any weight bought for the kitchen is most times less than desirable.

So in order to calibrate, one measures out svereal measures, 10 to 20, and weigh that as best as one can, the result divided my the number of measures.

This will be the calibrated weight per measure for the chemical in question.

However, it is important HOW this is done, one must use a volumteric measure exactly the same each time :

1. Scoop up the powder, make sure the measure is full and topped a little.

2. Hold the measure level over the container, and strike off the surplus with a knife or something similar, leaving a full and level measure.

3. Empty the measure into the water.

4. Repeat as necessary.

When one does this the same way every time, measuring out powder by volume is more than accurate enough for all photograpic purposes.

Coffe however is a special case, instant coffee is grainy, and varies there are grains, granules, powder and anything in between. If one tries to level off, the biggest grians will, either drag with them the fine powders, or be pressed into the measure, compacting the contents. This means there will be no repeatability.

Therefore a slightly different approach for coffee :

Just scoop the measure full, with a little top ("rounded" as the americans call it), try to do exactly the same each time, and pretty quickly you will do the same each time, once calibrated, it will be more than good enough.

Establish your calibration as outlined above, but with "rounded" measures.

Thats all there is too it. Once done one can do as I have done, go from metric weights and volumes, to fast and simple measures.

I use and stick by Coffenol CCH as outlined in Reinhold's blog, measures in ml and grams, but have adapted them to my Kaffenol 327, same thing, really but more practical and quicker.

I advocate that anyone who want to try the same follow the simple instructions given here, and follw this simple standard, that way it will also be possible to compare notes across oceans!

Best of luck!

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DONT HAVE MEASURES LIKE ME?

Like, if you only have spoons like these?

Well its really simple, as you can see a tablespoon might have double the volume from spoon to spoon, the same with teaspoons.
Therefore, trying to establish rules and trying to tell others what to do, based on these are meaningless.

BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE USELESS!!

Simply establish YOUR calibration, based on the principles above, and use them meticulously, you will be succcesful.

But NEVER try to use what you have in your house as a world standard!

If you choose to go down this road, always translate what you find into grams and millilitres, or grains and fl. oz. , which is the same thing but to different standards.

Whatever you choose, YOU will be succesful, this is easy and fun!

Kaffenol 327

To develop 1 film 35mm you need the following and do like this, its easy its nearly as quick as store-bought developers (quicker, since I have a 2 hour trip to the nearest store selling such stuff....)

First the ingredients, you need :

Washing Soda (Crystal Soda, Na2CO3) bought at the mall as an old fashioned cleaning agent.

Ascorbic Acid powder (E300), bought in a health-food store, a pharmacy, or a industrial food-stoff supplier.

Instant Coffee (cheapest, darkest brand, "brazero") bought at an office supply store they are the cheapest brand, if not price-wise!

You also need a little tempered water, glacial acid and fixer-bath solution.

The development of films follow the generic rules as with any other developer.


Ingredients, recipe
Kaffenol 327

Water 250 ml
Washing Soda : 3 teaspoos
Ascorbic acid : 2 teaspoons
Instant coffee : 7 teaspoons (better 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon)
Potassium bromide 10% 2,4 ml

Water to 320 ml (11 oz)


Start with 250 ml of water, dissolve 3 teaspoons of Wash. soda, one by one, and stir until all is dissolved. This may take some time, and is important, some of the soda usually crystallizes, and will be hard to dissolve. It is very important that all is dissolved.

When the soda is in solution add 2 teaspoons of ascorbic acid. The powder will "boil" as it dissolves, the solution will turn slightly green as the soda reacts with the acid and turns it into sodium ascorbate, the actual developing agent.

Then add 7 teaspoons of coffe, one by one, while stirring thoroughly. The coffe will also react with the soda giving off a characteristic odor in the process, not coffee-like but kaffenol-like! This is also a chemical reaction, and since coffee is no pure chemical agent, most likely several things happen at the same time, what interest us is that caffeic acid is turned into another developing agent.

Last add about 2,4 ml of a 10% solution of KBr, and top up with water to 320 ml (11 0z).

The developer is finished! Just let it stand for 10 - 15 minutes so that the chemical reactions in the brew finishes and the gas bubbles escapes with its odor.

When using the developer, start with 15 - 16 minutes of developing time, which works for nearly all films, B&W, color and slides.

Use a stop-bath, but be careful, if one uses a too strong stop-bath, the glacial acid can react with the soda and give rise to gas bubbles (CO2) inside the emulsion, this will give pinheads in the picture.

Use fixer as normal and make sure to wash out the fixer in the end, just as normal.

This developer will work well for nearly all films, only very high ISO films, like ISO 400 - 800 - 1800 & 3200 may need extra KBr added to keep fog levels down.

Best of luck. I'll be back with more on what a "teaspoon" is and what a "tablespoon" is and even what a "pinch" is!

About Potassium bromide (KBr)

Just as a car needs both a speeder and a brak, a developer needs chemicals that acts as a starter and as a restrainer.

Usually we add a developing agent (metol, Hydroquinone or in our case Ascorbic acid (Vitamine C) and Kaffeic acid (from the instant coffee).

We add some chemical to make sure that the chemical reaction starts and goes exactly as we want it too. Since most developing agents, including ours, works only in a basic solution, we need to add some form of base, only a couple of the known developing agents will work in an acidic solution.

Most of the time we use, Lye (NAoh), Soda (Na2CO3) or Borax, in decreasing developing power. The more basic a solution is, the stronger and faster the reaction.

Now - the more active the solution is, the more vulnerable it is to a phenomenon called chemical fogging. That is something unexpected, the developer attacks silver grains in the emultion that has not been exposed! It leaves a residue of develpoed silver where there should have been nothing.

To get rid of this, we need a
retardant. Several are available, citric acid, and potassium bromide (KBr).
Potasssium bromide is better, and more active, it does not affect acidity in the solution, like citric acid, and works with halv the additive, compared to cittric acid. The downturn is that citric acid can be found at the mall, among bakery stuff, while KBr has to be bought from a chemical supplier.

Another difficulty is that we need just a few grams, which is hard to measure exactly.

This is what to do :

Dissolve 25 gram KBr in 250 ml of water. You now have a 10% stock solution. measure out 10ml for 1 gram of KBr. That is very accurate and very easy to do!

In the recipes given earlier we needed 0.24 gram of KBr. To measure out that from the stock solution, just measure 2,4 or roughly a little shy of 3ml, that is close enough, add this before topping up to full volume.

Simple and very effective.

Make a note : if you add too much KBr, ALL of the developing action will be retarded, you'll get thin, underdeveloped negatives with no contrast, and will have to increase developing timews considerably to compensate for that.

Therefore it is better to use too little, than too much, modern scanners will be able to look through the chemical fog, while thin negatives with nothing on them cannot be saved by any means.

More about measurements.

More about measurements :

Standard recipe from Reinhold, Coffenol CCH :

Water 750 ml
Washing Soda 54 gram
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 16 gram
Instant coffee (Brazero) 40 gram
Potassium bromide (KBr) 0.75 gram

Top up water to 1000 ml (1 litre)

This recipe is OK as it stands, but few dev. tanks is 1 litre.
I have solved this problem with stock bottles, i.e. 1 litre bottles with 3X concentration, in use I measure out 1/3 of the tank volume from each bottle and are ready to go in minutes. Only problem is that neither Vitamin C nor Coffee keeps well in a bottle.

So to get a practical 1-tank solution, one must measure out enough of each chemical in question.
Not everyone has a prescise and repeatable weight that will weigh out small amounts.
And a practical solution is needed.

Americans advocate teaspoons, which are frowned upon by europeans. Howevere weight measure by volume is both highly accurate and repeatable, once the homelesson is done.

Homelesson : Find out what a "teaspoon" weighs of each chemical.

This is in fact very simple, set up a thrusty weight, measure out by teaspoonfuls, lets say repeat this 3 times, and find the average measure. This will be very accurate and very repeatable.

MY particular chemicals are as goes:

Washing Soda : 5.63 gram per teaspoon
Vitamin C powder : 2.65 gram per teaspoon
Instant Coffee : 1.80 gram per teaspoon

Homelesson : decide how many teaspoons are needed for one tankful :

My Jobo tank needs 240ml for one 35mm film
My Paterson tank needs 290ml for one 35mm film

Since Kaffenol is vulnerable to air bubbles clinging to the top of the film strip I add a little extra volume.

ONE TANKFUL FOR 1 35MM FILM : 320 ML (11 us FL. OZ.)
THAT MEANS ALL THE MEASURES OF THE RECIPE NEEDS TO BE MULTIPLIEDS WITH 0.32

Washing Soda 17.3 gram
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 5.1 gram
Instant coffee (Brazero) 12,8 gram
Potassium bromide (KBr) 0.24 gram

Water to 320 ml (11 us fl oz)


Translated to US measures and tablespoons we have :

Washing Soda 3.1 tsp
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 1,9 tsp
Instant coffee (Brazero) 7.1 tsp
Potassium bromide (KBr) 0.24 gram

Water to 320 ml (11 us fl oz

Kaffenol 32-II.1

Washing Soda 3 tsp
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 2 tsp
Instant coffee (Brazero) 2 tblssp 1 tsp
Potassium bromide (KBr) 0.24 gram

Water to 11 OZ


This is a very practical way to mix this developer, and very accurate too:

Just take 8 oz of water

Add 3 tsp of soda, one by one while stirring vigorously until each is dissolved.
Add 2 tsp of Vitamin C powder (NB Ascorbic Acid (E300), not sodium or calcium ascorbates!!!)
Add 2 tablespoons, plus one tsp of instant coffee, stir well and wait until bubbles have dissipated.

Add 0.24 gram of KBr (more on that later)

Top up to 11 OZ (ca 320 ml of water) and use the developer as normally.

BASELINES - MEASUREMENTS AND STUFF

Ascorbate developers has to do with mixing your own stuff.

A lot of recipes are circulating on the Net, some of which are really confusing, since they obviously are written down in haste by people with absolutely no clue about chemistry.

That might seem puzzling since what we now call analogoue photography in truth is about chemistry and might as well be called chemical photography.

If we try to convey information results and knowledge to anyone across the wast internet, we better make dead sure that information is clear and concise and not to be misunderstood at the other end of the line.

Therefore I always prefer to present my recipes and data in the metric system of measurement, AKA as scientific measurements.

When mixing chemicals, litres, grams and millilitres and milligrams are the measures, as well as knowledge on how to calculate percentile solutions.

When I present data, I will always give measures in grams and millilitres.

However, since american friends are born with 12 fingers, I will also give data in the nearly incomprehensible US way of measuring stuff like this : US fl oz, teaspoons and tablespoons, where appropiate. I was considering including grains as a measure of weight as well, but found out few outside of home reloading groups use that, these days.

I have done some research into US measures, trying to dechipher some US recipes, and will give you what I've found so far.

I try to make things simple and have standardized on the recipes given by Reinhold in his blog. But as I like to experiment when I have time, I'm also trying out US recipes, translating their measures to grams and millilitres in the process.


Standard recipe from Reinhold, Coffenol CCH :

Water 750 ml
Washing Soda 54 gram
Ascorbic Acid (E300) 16 gram
Instant coffee (Brazero) 40 gram
Potassium bromide (KBr) 0.75 gram

Top up water to 1000 ml (1 litre)

This standard recipe will work with most films B/W, Color negative (C41), Color slides (Ekta and Kodachrome)

A good starting point for development time is 16 minututes @ 20 centigrade.


Since caffenol don't last well in storage, its a good idea to mix what you need at the time. Since most developing tanks ony uses a fraction of a litre per 35mm film, its a good idea to mix just what you need.

My JOBO tank needs ca 250 ml per film, my Paterson Syst 4 tank needs 290 ml per film.

I find that ca 320 ml (11 US fl. oz) is a good starting point and measures out accordingly.