Hi guys

Having spent decades using conventional developer I'm about to embark on my first foray into the world of Caffenol. I have devoured the Caffenol Cookbook & Bible and read just about everything there is to be read on line and I've collected the necessary Aldi coffee, 99.8% pure Sodium Carbonate, Pure Vitamin C and I have some Potassium Bromide arriving tomorrow - at this point I've gone for the 'proper' chemicals to try to avoid beginners mistakes and get to know what I'm doing before trying the more common and possibly cheaper versions.

My films of choice are:

5x4 - Fomapan 100, FP4+
120 - 400TX, Tmax 400, FP4+, Fomapan 200

I just tried to do a quick edit on my last post but hitting the Edit button throws up an error message:

PHOTRIO - Error
The controller Snog_SocialGroups_ControllerPublic_Groupdiscussion does not define an action called Editmessage.

hi limeykeith
sounds like you are off to a good start !
im looking forward to seeing how it all works for you ..
have fun !
john

Best of luck with the Caffenol limeykeith. Your choice of products is excellent and should produce great results from your first go. Letting the mixture sit for a while to dissolve properly seems to reduce any white spots. I start at a temperature v's time ratio but it doesn't seem to matter if the mixture cools over the development time in colder weather. Reinhold has some good tips on adjusting the Bromide to the various film speeds but this small amount is hard to measure accurately even with digital scales. I find my cheap scales give a more accurate measurement if I add the Bromide to the weight of the container rather than registering the container back to zero to measure. Enjoy and looking forward to your assessment of the results.
Robin.

Thanks for the encouragement guys, I was rather afraid that the group might be rather dormant, now I'm thrilled to bits.

I don't know if it will be of any use to anyone but I just found the following details about Tesco Soda Crystals from productingredients.net:

Soda Crystals

• Sodium Carbonate Decahydrate
• Magnesium Hydroxide
• Silica

I did a dry out test this morning and 10gm of crystals straight from a new packet lost 6.1gms in weight.

As a matter of interest is there any benefit/downside from filtering the mix before developing?

LimeyKeith said:

...............
As a matter of interest is there any benefit/downside from filtering the mix before developing?

Click to expand...

I have started using coffee paper filters for my last two film developments. One of them was for fresh XTOL as it had some scum in the mix. No ill affects and my Caffenol developed film had minimal white spots compared to some previous ones.
Robin.

I shot a roll of 400TX yesterday and developed it exactly as per the Cookbook Caffenol-C-L and I am very pleased with the results. I used a coffee filter paper to filter the mixed solution and I also filtered the fixer. The film was over-developed at 70 minutes but I was surprised to see only the odd spot on the film strip so I guess filtering is a necessity from here on. I have put the untouched image in the photo gallery but I seem to be having a mental block on how to put a ink in this post (aka a 'Senior Moment' ).

LimeyKeith said:

I shot a roll of 400TX yesterday and developed it exactly as per the Cookbook Caffenol-C-L and I am very pleased with the results. I used a coffee filter paper to filter the mixed solution and I also filtered the fixer. The film was over-developed at 70 minutes but I was surprised to see only the odd spot on the film strip so I guess filtering is a necessity from here on. I have put the untouched image in the photo gallery but I seem to be having a mental block on how to put a ink in this post (aka a 'Senior Moment' ).

Click to expand...

Great to see your developing worked out okay on first attempt. Looks a great photo with interesting subjects. https://www.photrio.com/forum/index.php?groupphotos/photo&photo_id=3537 I have recently begun wet printing my Caffenol negs and the results are better than scanned. Keep notes on your development of different films as they become a good reference for later on. Also the temperature ratio of reducing 60 minutes @ 20c by 10% for every 1c over 20c does seem to be a good guide.

Thanks for the link info Robin, I was looking at the buttons on the menu? bar . I developed a test shot on Fomapan 100 5x4 yesterday using the Caffenol-C-H formula this time and once again I'm quite pleased with the result. I shot at box speed as a baseline and the neg is slightly over exposed/over developed/contrasty as expected. I find Fomapan a rather contrasty film so I need to find the best formula/dev time to try and tame this as I use a lot of it in 5x4 size. It's over thirty years since I last had my own darkroom and sadly space, age and health rule out having another, unless ....................... !

LimeyKeith said:

I shot a roll of 400TX yesterday and developed it exactly as per the Cookbook Caffenol-C-L and I am very pleased with the results. .................... I have put the untouched image in the photo gallery.........

Click to expand...

This is the finished image. https://www.photrio.com/forum/index.php?groupphotos/photo&photo_id=3538 Don't you just love Caffenol

LimeyKeith said:

I don't know if it will be of any use to anyone but I just found the following details about Tesco Soda Crystals from productingredients.net:

Soda Crystals

• Sodium Carbonate Decahydrate
• Magnesium Hydroxide
• Silica

I did a dry out test this morning and 10gm of crystals straight from a new packet lost 6.1gms in weight.

As a matter of interest is there any benefit/downside from filtering the mix before developing?

Click to expand...

hi limeykeith

one of the biggest stumbling blocks people have with any of the coffee developer recipes
is they use something that seems like what they need ( washing soda for example ) but it
has other additives in the mix which may or may not cause problems.
it is great that you found something with "extras" that works
( usually it is the other way around ! )
another thing you can do if you can't find straight up washing soda is take baking soda and
heating it in an oven to purge the moisture out of it and convert it to washing soda.
i wish i knew this trick when i was in france a bunch of years ago, i spent a small fortune
on pharmacy grade sodium carbonate ( at a pharmacy ) when i couldn't find washing soda in the grocery store.

john