caffenol vs commercial developer

removed account4 · Apr 30, 2015

the photographs i uploaded to the gallery yesterday
were all done in a mixture of caffenol and dektol.
although a bit splotchy ( user error developing 10 sheets of paper at a time )
they came out pretty good ... and the week before were part of my
methodology to process 12 sheets of 30 years old shelf stored very expired iso 1250 film
which by all reports by the people who know film better than anyone else, should hav been dead.
granted i over exposed it an awful lot, but ithad no problem recording an image ..

versitile indeed !

===

have fun bert!

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

momus said:
I totally agree w/ Ralph. Labs are not the way to go. They have screwed up so many of my shots, and it cost me a lot of money to have them screwed up at that. Besides, until someone develops their your own they don't understand what's going on w/ the photographic process. Some people are more into just getting the image on the neg though. and learning the photographic end isn't a priority. I can understand that. Different strokes for different folks.

Yep, the place that I recently got my film to be processed did a bad job. Some parts of the film were undeveloped and some pictures have tiny little black dots on them. and it was 23 DOLLARS with tax. I was just like "screw this" and decided do start developing it myself.

TheToadMen · Apr 30, 2015

mehguy said:
Yep, the place that I recently got my film to be processed did a bad job. Some parts of the film were undeveloped and some pictures have tiny little black dots on them. and it was 23 DOLLARS with tax. I was just like "screw this" and decided do start developing it myself.

I'm lucky to have a (last remaining?) professional lab nearby in Utrecht, Holland: Color Utrecht.
They still develop and print everything themselves and do an excellent job in B&W negs, colour negs and colour slides.
It's about 7,50 a roll (including sleeves) and I've had about 30 rolls now without any problems and very good quality.

The only regret is that they don't do Agfa Scala as B&W positives, but there is a guy in Germany (our neighbor) that still does, I'm told.

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

TheToadMen said:
I'm lucky to have a (last remaining?) professional lab nearby in Utrecht, Holland: Color Utrecht.
They still develop and print everything themselves and do an excellent job in B&W negs, colour negs and colour slides.
It's about 7,50 a roll (including sleeves) and I've had about 30 rolls now without any problems and very good quality.

The only regret is that they don't do Agfa Scala as B&W positives, but there is a guy in Germany (our neighbor) that still does, I'm told.

actually all my local walmart's stopped developing film in February so i had to go to blacks... and it will be the last time i do. took 2 weeks to develop and it was a crappy job.

still havent started shooting my hp5 plus yet... what to shoot what to shoot...

TheToadMen · Apr 30, 2015

mehguy said:
still havent started shooting my hp5 plus yet... what to shoot what to shoot...

- Make a series about the area you live in.
- Make a domestic portrait of all your neighbours.
- It's Spring time, go register it.
- Make a walk in the woods and shoot some sceneries and close-ups.
- Go to a market place and register the movements.
- Follow a single road and show us what you see.
- Go shoot some front doors like this.

And above all:

"Have fun and catch that light beam"

Bert from Holland

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

TheToadMen said:
- Make a series about the area you live in.
- Make a domestic portrait of all your neighbours.
- It's Spring time, go register it.
- Make a walk in the woods and shoot some sceneries and close-ups.
- Go to a market place and register the movements.
- Follow a single road and show us what you see.
- Go shoot some front doors like this.

And above all:

"Have fun and catch that light beam"

Bert from Holland

well actually i started shooting, so much fun... havent shot a roll in awhile. i literally shot 10 exposures all in my backyard. im also going hiking later today but it might not be bright enough... how does 400iso perform in the evening?

i dont even know how to do that door thing

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

OK. i finished the roll. got some good pictures of forests and stuff. now here comes the hard part... developing...

removed account4 · Apr 30, 2015

mehguy said:
OK. i finished the roll. got some good pictures of forests and stuff. now here comes the hard part... developing...

naaah
that is the easy part !
if you put a 20cc / 1L of print developer/caffenol you don't even need to agitate
you just put your film on a film reel, and in your tank
put water in to wet the film ..
pour out, and add your caffenol ..
and leave the room without even agitating ..
come back in about 25 mins- 30 mins and your film will look nice-nice.
i processed all my film this way for about 2 years ...

good luck with whatever you decide to use and do !
john

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

jnanian said:
naaah
that is the easy part !
if you put a 20cc / 1L of print developer/caffenol you don't even need to agitate
you just put your film on a film reel, and in your tank
put water in to wet the film ..
pour out, and add your caffenol ..
and leave the room without even agitating ..
come back in about 25 mins- 30 mins and your film will look nice-nice.
i processed all my film this way for about 2 years ...

good luck with whatever you decide to use and do !
john

lol dude im so worried if it will come out as a clear purple strip of film.

30 minutes! is that not over developing?

removed account4 · Apr 30, 2015

30 mins without agitation --- just letting your flm sit there is stand developing
people often times do it for like an hour with other developers like rodinal ,
coffee and freinds, 30 mins seems fine.

Greg Heath · Apr 30, 2015

Filmdev.org and check out caffenol stand development.

Greg Heath · Apr 30, 2015

I do it 1:100 60 min

1:200 120 min

Stand with Rodinal. Works great.

mehguy · Apr 30, 2015

well im probably not gonna bother with stand developing. im just going to follow the delta recipe http://www.caffenol.org/2010/03/12/the-delta-recipe/

also, im gonna get a metal tank. is it really that hard to load the film on a metal one compared to plastic?

Greg Heath · May 1, 2015

I love metal. Buy a Hewes brand heavy duty reel. I think they are the best. The regular ones are ok but you doubt want it to warp.

Plastic to me is a pain in the neck.

Get some old 120 film if that is what u are using and just practice while you are watching tv.

I use metal reels for 35mm. For 35mm I try to only wind or use 24 exposures because 36 is a pain to wind on the spools because it's so long.

mehguy · May 1, 2015

Greg Heath said:
I love metal. Buy a Hewes brand heavy duty reel. I think they are the best. The regular ones are ok but you doubt want it to warp.

Plastic to me is a pain in the neck.

Get some old 120 film if that is what u are using and just practice while you are watching tv.

I use metal reels for 35mm. For 35mm I try to only wind or use 24 exposures because 36 is a pain to wind on the spools because it's so long.

well what i did is that when i was done the film, I rewound the film until i left a little bit of the leader out so that when I put it on a reel, i can start it in daylight then go into the dark room.

removed account4 · May 1, 2015

mehguy said:
well what i did is that when i was done the film, I rewound the film until i left a little bit of the leader out so that when I put it on a reel, i can start it in daylight then go into the dark room.

hope that works for you ..
it never worked for me becasue
with my metal reels ( not hewes but
a vareity of others i have collected )
the catch is in the center of the reel
(maybe it slides side to side ? ) but i also have some
with pointy things that stick up and grab the
sprocket holes ... wont' work with half-width of film.
maybe your reels are different ?

good to see you are having fun
john

Greg Heath · May 1, 2015

mehguy said:
well what i did is that when i was done the film, I rewound the film until i left a little bit of the leader out so that when I put it on a reel, i can start it in daylight then go into the dark room.

Isn't that cheating ?? [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

mehguy · May 4, 2015

I have some iodized sea salt lying around. should i use it?

Greg Heath · May 4, 2015

Sure try it. A pinch

mehguy · May 4, 2015

Greg Heath said:
Sure try it. A pinch

lol why only a pinch?

Greg Heath · May 4, 2015

http://caffenol.blogspot.com/2011/05/iodized-kitchen-salt-can-replace.html?m=1

mehguy · May 5, 2015

does the temperature of the caffenol matter?

Greg Heath · May 5, 2015

Greg Heath · May 5, 2015

I tried to keep it 68F/20C. I always mixed the water and salt first. Then the Vit C, then the coffee. The coffee caused a temperature rise if I remember correctly.

mehguy · May 5, 2015

alright thanks. I ordered the developing tank today. waiting for it to come in.

caffenol vs commercial developer

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