Coffee Only?

Twiggy

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Hey there,

I know that caffenol is a mix of instant coffee (most commonly) and vitamin C, and sometimes washing soda.

Has anyone tried just instant coffee, ever? If so, did it work, and how long did it take, was it a long-time overnight process?

I have DF96 for now, and will be getting Rodinal soon as well, or maybe Flic FIlms Black and Green developer, but I am curious as to how easy/cheap you can technically get if in a pinch, or your extremely cheap lol.
 

Don_ih

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It does not work.

The vitamin C (ascorbic acid) when mixed with a suitable base (sodium carbonate, in this instance) makes a developer. That is superadditive to whatever is in coffee that develops film (a phenol or something). Or something like that.

If you want to use caffenol, follow a recipe or expect blank film.
 

Peter Schrager

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Check out islanddarkroom.com
Making developers from plants
 
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Twiggy

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From what I've seen Caffic Acid is the ingredient in coffee that makes it work.

I'm probably not gonna ever use caffenol anyways, more of a curiosity about it on my part.
 

MattKing

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Twiggy said:
From what I've seen Caffic Acid is the ingredient in coffee that makes it work.
Click to expand...

Actually Caffeic Acid.
But that probably isn't enough to do the job alone by itself.
Caffenol tends to add uncertainty, including a distinct possibility of total failure.
It typically also really stinks!
 
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Andrew O'Neill

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MattKing said:
Actually Caffeic Acid.
But that probably isn't enough to the job alone by itself.
Caffenol tends to add uncertainty, including a distinct possibility of total failure.
It typically also really stinks!
Click to expand...

Especially when the film hits the fixer. Tuna fish sandwiches!
 
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Romanko

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Cost-wise how does Caffenol compare to D-23? I doubt that you can beat it considering you can use D-23 1:1, 1:3 or replenished.
 
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Twiggy

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I think I'm going to stick with my DF96 and then stand/semi-stand develop with Rodinal after that runs out, when it comes to what I actually use.

So far I took 4 photos with 120 film in the kodak hawkeye special. HP5 Plus, 400.
 

halfaman

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Twiggy said:
From what I've seen Caffic Acid is the ingredient in coffee that makes it work.
Click to expand...

One Photrio member bought caffeic acid and tried it. The result was disastrous and the conclusion that caffeic acid is not what makes caffenol work. Brewed coffe is a mixture of about a hundred compounds, so it may be not one but a combination of several of them.
 

Alan Johnson

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In my experiment caffeic acid did work:

Caffeic Acid-fill of beans

Caffeic acid is often mentioned as the possible developing agent in the instant coffee based developer Caffenol: http://caffenol.blogspot.de/2010/03/caffenol-c-m-recipe.html I compared the activity of Caffenol-C-M with that of a similar solution in which the 40g/L instant coffee (Lidl Arabica)...
www.photrio.com
But later some involvement of chlorogenic acids was discussed.
It's a real rabbit hole.
 

pentaxuser

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Romanko said:
Cost-wise how does Caffenol compare to D-23? I doubt that you can beat it considering you can use D-23 1:1, 1:3 or replenished.
Click to expand...

I have never done a cost study but I think you are right. Certainly instant coffee prices in the U.K. would make the alternative of D23 likely to be the winner on cost grounds

pentaxuser
 

gordonrgw

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I have just completed my first development with caffenol, using the Caffenol-C-M recipe. Costing out the ingredients sourced mainly from ebay it worked out at a cost of £1.07 per litre. I developed a single roll of 120 so the developing cost was slightly over 50p for that roll. the only thing really on top of that would be the cost of the fixer.
That, of course would be an ongoing cost as Caffenol is a one-shot developer and can't be used multiple times.
 

koraks

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gordonrgw said:
£1.07 per litre.
Click to expand...

Adox Adonal at Nick & Trick is something like 12 GBP for 500ml (A and B). At 1+50 you're using 20ml per liter, which would work out to < 0.50GBP/liter. Performance will be similar. The smell of Adonal is a lot more benign...
There are plenty of other options that will easily beat caffenol cost-wise. The main reason for this is the use of vitamin C and instant coffee, both of which are used in relatively large amounts in caffenol due to their low activity.

Of course, it's very affordable regardless of how you look at it. Caffenol is easy to DIY with supermarket/drugstore ingredients - I can see the appeal in that. Many, many years ago, the same was true for many developers, but that was mainly because druggists still stocked stuff like hydroquinone...
 

Donald Qualls

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Back when I first heard of Caffenol, I hadn't seen the vitamin C version and used it with just coffee and washing soda. It's slow-acting and grainy, but has a lot of stain (both imagewise and general) that both smooths the grain in a darkroom print and has some contrast effects (by filtering out blue light).

Smells about the same, though.
 

abruzzi

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a while back I was searching for something totally unrelated, and came across an article identifyied that roasting coffee produces pyrogallol. As one of active ingrdients in Pyrocat, I though it interesting, but I have no idea how much remains and makes its way to the beverage and whether it can have any impact on the developing capability of coffee:

 

eli griggs

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I might have posted this here in the past, but I used a communications class years ago as a communications demonstrate at making actual Caffinol in the time allowed to me.

The novelty of using freeze dried coffee and laundry soap seemed like magic to several of our students and I hope at least one of them gave it a shot at home.
 
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