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When I was in college, we were in the dark room when the prof came in and heard me saying her name at my film canister. She asked what that was about, i replied "I'm agitating my film". I really had no love for that are professor, she was mean spirited and went out of her way to get a young gal with dwarfism to quit the class. Her reasoning was the girl couldn't keep up because of a disability. I spent an entire semester antagonizing the prof.
Noooo! Please be kind to mother nature as she is to us! Instead take a photo of it it'll last longer plus you can show your friends and family!i have a few folks like that. I say I'm going to carve their name on a tree and then cut the tree down.
never done the coffee thing, but all agitation I do involves tipping the tank upside down, then back, then upside down, for about 10 seconds every 30 for whatever the whole development time is.
Agitation's purpose is to have fresh developer on the surface of the film. When you develop film you use up the chemistry adjacent to the film's surface, but that takes a little time, so the idea is to replace it at regular intervals and give it time to do it's thing, then change it again. The amount of time you agitate can determine contrast and rate of development, things determined by the film's maker to give you what the maker considers to be ideal results.
So, if you are agitating for 10 seconds, say, yes, you flip it over and over for 10 seconds, then stop.
the way i agitate caffenol 130 is
1 full min ( lazy 8's while turning the tank upside down too )
and then 10 seconds every 60 for the duration of the developing time
i sometimes agitate by shaking the tank up and down for 30 seconds or a minute too
or i roll the tank continuously on its side in the sink for a while ...
but there are different ways people do it
here are a few examples:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/s...92dbf1eb2b95/fe1427daa5e3077d79f48235dd617d86
or
http://www.retiredcameras.com/caffenol.html
or with a swizzle stick
https://www.flickr.com/groups/33051635@N00/discuss/72157625001375111/
or space out your inversions
http://largeformat-caffenol.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html
i guess the trick is to shoot a few rolls of film with nothing important on them and
experiment a little and see how much or how little or how rough or how gentle works for you ...
sorry for not being much help
good luck !
john
The general rule is 30 second agitation in the first minute and 10 seconds agitation in every minute there after.
Ok, so, 30 second agitation via timer or 1 one thousand, or both, and next, 1 one thousand, 10 one thousand, pause, finally, 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, until 10 one thousand, until completion of time, for example agitate for 15 minutes. This goes for the rinses and the fixer as well, I'd assume? It seemed all too strange to me, but, off to try again tonight, wish me well! Thanks again everyone, for your first hand, non googled human approach! :devil:
Calm is required.
Agitation is pretty simple. Essentially, you are just moving the liquid around regularly to make sure that the liquid against the film stays fresh.
When instructions say to agitate for 30 seconds, it means that you smoothly and repeatedly turn the tank upside down and then back rightside up. As you do so you twist it a bit so the liquid inside moves up and down and swirls a bit each time.
I like to take about 2 - 3 seconds for each full cycle. So 30 seconds of agitation should result in 10 - 15 cycles. Use the time for each cycle that you are comfortable with, and that you can easily repeat for each roll you develop.
If you decide to agitate every 30 seconds afterwards, then you watch a clock and every time the second hand passes another 30 seconds, you pick up the tank, give it two cycles of inversion in the same smooth and repeatable way. At the end of each cycle, gently rap the bottom of the tank on a towel on your counter-top, and put the tank back down.
If you prefer agitation on 60 second intervals, that works well as well (for reasonably long times). Instead of two inversion cycles every 30 seconds, I would suggest four inversion cycles each 60 seconds - they should take in total about ten seconds.
Agitation should have energy, but not be violent. If you do it to music, something mid-tempo is best - avoid thrash metal or baby lullaby.
It is far easier to show you how to combine inversions and twisting than it is to explain it, but I can suggest an experiment. Take the tank in both hands, with your left hand on the top, and right hand on the bottom. Then use your arms and wrists to invert the tank, ending up with the tank upside down, and your right hand above your left. Watch how the tank naturally twist as it turns upside down - that is the sort of movement that works.
I have developed an unspent roll, of the beautifully created gift of Ilford!
Thanks for the very thorough explanation Matt, I appreciate it very much, and I will make all of these suggestions my sticky note, especially the next time I have the supplies for Caffenol, well, I need the Vitamin C only, but, it is late, and I do not wish to travel, as Denn die Todten reiten schnell, and I have no wish to feed zombies, yet!
Damn you fool!!! you were sacked! wait . . . . wait . . . . . wait!! You were SACKED again. wait and then repeat
Well you can at least check that the edge numbers came out properly so you know your caffenol is working....
It was worse than I mentioned! I actually developed a roll of color E6 FILM! I devastated my beautifully crafted photographs! All lost, all gone, and wiped from memory!
Re E 6: I once in error included a cassette of E 6 with several cassettes of C 41 I dropped off at a kiosk. The dolts doing the work didn't notice, and ran all through the C 41 line. When I remonstrated and wanted the promised replacement roll, they tried to blame their error on me, worrying that the E 6 had contaminated the line. Since the kiosk was owned by the family which controlled all media in this small town (and the owner was a vindictive SOB, and I was a public library director) I gritted my teeth, cursed under my breath, and walked away. .
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