Finally: Kodachrome and Caffenol with good results

480sparky · Jan 9, 2016

Finally got my Kodachrome/Caffenol-C exposure and development fairly nailed down today:

Kodachrome 40, exposed at ASA 25.

Developed in Caffenol-C*, 68°F 15 min w/60-sec agitations, clear water stop bath, Ilford fixer for 5 min.

* 40ml washing soda
7ml ascorbic acid
64ml Coffee
Water to 400ml.

Scanned with PlusTek 8200i @ 7200 dpi as 8-bit JPEG, converted to b&w in GIMP 2.6.

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trythis · Jan 9, 2016

Good work, how much of this film do you have to shoot?

Sent with typotalk

480sparky · Jan 9, 2016

bvy · Jan 9, 2016

Nice. How about a larger scan?

gzhuang · Jan 9, 2016

Congratulations! Great Job!

480sparky · Jan 10, 2016

100% crop:

HiHoSilver · Jan 10, 2016

Bravo Sparkey.
You mention the BW conversion. I'm presuming it would only dev. as BW - didn't result in a regular color image. Right?

railwayman3 · Jan 10, 2016

HiHoSilver said:
Bravo Sparkey.
You mention the BW conversion. I'm presuming it would only dev. as BW - didn't result in a regular color image. Right?

Very interesting....I have a few lonely Kodachrome films sitting in the fridge, I may give this a go. (And, no, there would be no chance of getting a color image. Unlike current color films, Kodachome had no color coupler chemicals in the emulsion....these were in the three color developers, and this was, in part, one of the reasons for the distinctive color pallette of the film. Putting it very simply, it just had three B&W layers, each of different color sensitivity.)

480sparky - how did you deal with the rem-jet coating on the film?

HiHoSilver · Jan 10, 2016

Rail, Thank You. It was the 'conversion' to BW that raised the question.

'Very cool, though.

gzhuang · Jan 10, 2016

railwayman3 said:
480sparky - how did you deal with the rem-jet coating on the film?

* 40ml washing soda

480sparky · Jan 10, 2016

railwayman3 said:
Very interesting....I have a few lonely Kodachrome films sitting in the fridge, I may give this a go. (And, no, there would be no chance of getting a color image. Unlike current color films, Kodachome had no color coupler chemicals in the emulsion....these were in the three color developers, and this was, in part, one of the reasons for the distinctive color pallette of the film. Putting it very simply, it just had three B&W layers, each of different color sensitivity.)

480sparky - how did you deal with the rem-jet coating on the film?

The film comes out with a very dark yellow base, much like C-41's orange. I ended up over-exposing and over-developing just to overcome the contrast loss due to this base. Some of it might simply be due to age. The film is all early 1990's expiration date and I have no history of how it was stored until I got it. Most likely, it was stored at room temperature all that time. Now it's in my freezer.

Scanning it as color gives me a bluish positive image. I scan in color so I can get a 16bit TIFF. This allows me much more latitude to work with the image digitally.

But now that I've gotten the exposure/developing 'pert down pat, I'll start shooting 'real' stuff and take the results into the darkroom for some wet prints.

*and yes... the washing soda is to remove the remjet. The caffenol goes in dark brown, and comes out pitch black. As a stop bath, I just continue to rinse until the water comes out clean. But even then, there's still some left after fixing. But it comes off easily with a film squeegee just prior to hanging up to dry.

Chrismat · Jan 10, 2016

This is great...what are the concentrations of coffee/washing soda/ascorbic acid to water?

removed account4 · Jan 10, 2016

480sparky

caffenol ROCKS!

480sparky · Jan 10, 2016

Chrismat said:
This is great...what are the concentrations of coffee/washing soda/ascorbic acid to water?

Recipe is in the first post.

bdial · Jan 11, 2016

For the units on the powders do you mean "mg" instead of "ml"?

480sparky · Jan 11, 2016

bdial said:
For the units on the powders do you mean "mg" instead of "ml"?

No. Ml is dry volume.

removed account4 · Jan 11, 2016

hi 480- sparky

so you put that much coffee, vit c and carbonate in a graduate cylinder to make your measurements ?
i ask because Ml (mililitres ) is typically a liquid volume. whatever you did, the results speak for themselves !

i've been exposing color material and processing in caffenol for years, its nice to see others doing it too.

happy shooting !

480sparky · Jan 11, 2016

jnanian said:
hi 480- sparky

so you put that much coffee, vit c and carbonate in a graduate cylinder to make your measurements ?
i ask because Ml (mililitres ) is typically a liquid volume. whatever you did, the results speak for themselves !

i've been exposing color material and processing in caffenol for years, its nice to see others doing it too.

happy shooting !

Yes, I use a graduated measuring cup to measure out dry volume.

I have a nice electronic scale that was given to me, but I cannot calibrate it because the calibration weight is missing and I have yet to locate a replacement. So I simply revert to what works.

removed account4 · Jan 11, 2016

480sparky said:
Yes, I use a graduated measuring cup to measure out dry volume.

I have a nice electronic scale that was given to me, but I cannot calibrate it because the calibration weight is missing and I have yet to locate a replacement. So I simply revert to what works.

and it works !

i don't really measure my ingredients at all,
so if your graduate goes missing leaks breaks &c
free-pour, eyeball, guestimate works too, just like
the teaspoon method ... the beauty of caffneol
is it is a forgiving developer that works great ..

have fun!

480sparky · Jan 11, 2016

jnanian said:
and it works !

i don't really measure my ingredients at all,
so if your graduate goes missing leaks breaks &c
free-pour, eyeball, guestimate works too, just like
the teaspoon method ... the beauty of caffneol
is it is a forgiving developer that works great ..

have fun!

Eh. If it goes AWOL or breaks, I think I can buy another one at WalMart.

Finally: Kodachrome and Caffenol with good results

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