Good to the last drop: Coffee as developer

[audadvnc]

OK, DYI home processors, try this for a change of pace. Alternative photo chemistry, aka kitchen processing aka caffenol.

I had heard about using coffee, tea, Coca Cola, Vitamin C as photo developers some time back and put experimentation on my "rainy day, just shy of never" project list. The rainy day came recently and after a couple of false starts I finally got results.

With common household chemicals: (strong) coffee, Vitamin C tablets, baking soda, lye and 20 Mule Team Borax, I was able to get a usable negative image from Plus-X 7276. Of course D76 is cheaper, faster and better in all ways, but - what the heck, it's kind of fun to recreate Talbot and Herschel in your kitchen sink.



Shown are 2 strips of 7276, one developed in D76, the other in Caffenol. Guess which is which?



An example frame of film developed in D76, and -



So what, you say? Why bother with an inefficient and error prone technique when a faster and easier method exists? Just because, I suppose - 'cause it's there.

For more information, try:

http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-coffee.html
http://shutterbug.com/techniques/film_p ... sb_coffee/

[Arislan]

It's not April 1st yet, is it?

[tlatosmd]

Mhhh, yer old-school homebrew coffee for your films, ain't nuthin better than it! :lol:

Anyway, no time for home processing, and too concerned about my personal health.

[Mitch Perkins]

Shown are 2 strips of 7276, one developed in D76, the other in Caffenol. Guess which is which?

[snip]

So what, you say? Why bother with an inefficient and error prone technique when a faster and easier method exists? Just because, I suppose - 'cause it's there.

Hey! So is the van, the image of which the D76 *failed to process*! :?)

Pretty neat stuff. I've been wondering about the new negs along this line...?

Mitch

[lunni]

Yes, great fun. I too tried this with fomapan 35mm film sometime ago (with coffee and cleaning soda). My intention was to develope some 16mm R100 fotage to negative with this process. Guess I still might do it some day... Some day...

Too bad that the developer does not smell as good that you would think:)

Btw. they say that *baking* soda does not work. Did it really work for you?

[downix]

Can you post the percentage ratio for those of us interesting in trying? i got a roll of Foma here I'd love to experiment with.

[mattias]

i've seen stills developed in "pure" water from the river rhein and they looked fantastic. that was hilarious. :-)

/matt

[Carlos 8mm]

Very Interesting!

The "Caffenol" frame looks to my eyes sharper than the D-76 developed film frame.

Can you confirm that?

How about granularity?

[Carlos 8mm]

Hey, if caffeine is the key...

how about to use Red Bull or Speed?

[tlatosmd]

how about to use Red Bull or Speed?

Who knows, it might lead to faster processing... :lol:

[Carlos 8mm]

Who knows, it might lead to faster processing... :lol:

Hahaha, could be!

but I was thinking about it, and it would feel like Barney Gumble sacrificing his precious beer for film processing...

[Superbus_]

Is it a joke or are you serious?

[audadvnc]

Btw. they say that *baking* soda does not work. Did it really work for you?

That's what the lye is for. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, which is useless for developing. Lye aka sodium hydroxide converts baking soda to sodium carbonate.

And yes, it really does work, though I wouldn't recommend it for everyday processing; it turns the film brown. Might be OK for prints, though, if you want that old-time sepia toning effect. But if you were gonna do that, might as well sepia tone it.

The formula I used:
12 oz <really strong!> hot coffee - I used French Roast
2 x 1000 milligram Vitamin C tablets
1 Tblspoon Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1/2 Tblspoon Red Devil Lye (sodium hydroxide)
(mix in slowly: lye and water are a potentially hazardous combination)
1 Tblspoon 20 Mule Team Borax (borax)

Develop 25 minutes at 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

The "Caffenol" frame looks to my eyes sharper than the D-76 developed film frame.

Trick of the scanner, I suppose. The caffenol frame doesn't have as much relative density as the equivalent D76 frame. It seems to also have different contrast characteristics. After all, we're talking about a whole different chemistry than normal.

And considering how much caffeine is involved, you'd think it would develop faster. But it's easier to shake the processing tank :lol:

P.S. It probably won't work with Fomapan or 4-X film stocks: they both incorporate silver-based antihalation backings that need to be bleached out in a standard reversal process.

[steve hyde]

..far out 8O

That is a cool method. I will keep it in mind for survival developing situations.

Thanks for posting your results.

Steve

[Carlos 8mm]

Audadvnc,

Did you used D-76 1:1 working solution?

Which temperature did you choose to process Plus- X film with D-76 during 5 minutes?