caffeinol and a fizzy cocktail

[removed account4]

last night i brewed myself some instant coffee developer to process some film in. i forgot my measure for dry chemicals so i figured "what could happen, i'll just eyeballed + dumped."

THAT is the last time i will attempt non-percise measurments.

when i added the washing soda, the whole beaker fizzed uncontrolably, and by the time it stopped 8 oz. ( out of 16oz. ) of the solution had "fizzed-out" of my container.

while it was fun, and reminded me of a volcano using vinager, baking soda and a dry cell battery, it will be the last time i "wing it" ...

anyone else make caffeinol and get a fizzy cocktail ?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think if you were to tweak caffenol enough, you could get something not unlike ABC pyro, but with less contrast. I made mine with some instant coffee that had been in the back of a drawer for years at the office and washing soda from the grocery store.

 

[removed account4]

hi jay and dave

thanks for your responses -

jay - i am not unhappy with my results when i use coffee developers. i really can't complain --- i think it fizzed because i added too much vitamin c and then way too much washing soda. it scared the heck out of me

dave - i've never used a pyro developer so i really don't have anything to compare my film to ... my negative looks a lot different than anything i have ever processed with before, that is for sure. not a heck of a lot of contrast, but i don't really care, most of the film i have processed "since the beginning" has lacked in the contrast department ....

-john

 

[titrisol]

That sounds like fun!
I normally start by dissolving the Washing soda (untill all the grit is gone), then add the vitamin C (some fizzing happens but it is about 1 teaspoon)
And finally the coffee.

The smell is not very pleasing but it gets the job done, as David said it is similar to pyro in some respects.

 

[htmlguru4242]

I've had this happen before. However, for me, it was upon adding the Ascorbic acid that it fizzed. I never actually got to use it after that, though.

You definetely should add the washing soda (or NaOH like I used) and the ascorbic acid FIRST, then the coffee ...

It wuld be fun to really refine this, becuase I think that it has potential to be pretty neat, thoug hright now its kind of a novelty, though the results I've seen are pretty good for coffee ...

 

[titrisol]

It is a very neat developer actually.
In my tests with JC pro 100 I found that adding vitamin C actually decreased the amount of stain but increeased the shadow detail considerably.

 

[htmlguru4242]

I have heard about ascorbic acid increasing detail. Althoug it has some developing action on its own, I believe that it partially functions as an activator, improving hte action of hte other chems. in the coffee ...

 

[titrisol]

Ascorbate can be a developer by itself, and it is used in Xtol and others.

Run a search here for caffenol, in the BW section and in the formula section.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Donald Qualls chimed in there, and I believed Ryuji Suzuki as well.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Yes, ascorbic acid (actually the salt, or ascorbate) is a developing agent and it is also additive or super-additive with other developing agents. In addition, it can act as a developing solution preservative.