Looking for good caffenol recipes without Vitamin C

nascarfann · Aug 10, 2023

I am trying to find some caffenol recipes that don't use Vitamin C and am struggling to find some. I am getting back into caffenol after about a year off (life gets busy) and when I had previously done caffenol development I just threw some coffee and washing soda together and made an awesome developer.
I am trying to get back into caffenol and followed a recipe that used Vitamin C and was quite disappointed. My old recipe seemed to give better results for my unique photographic taste. Also, my new recipe after a few days suffered from sudden developer death; my old recipe was good for at least a month.
I want a more "consistent" solution this time, and I would like one that doesn't use Vitamin C. So my question is where can I find some good recipes for caffenol that don't use vitamin c? Can I just leave the vitamin c out of a normal recipe and triple the dev time?

Donald Qualls · Aug 10, 2023

The only non-ascorbate Caffenol I've used is the original, with just Folger's Coffee Crystals (or generic knock-off) at what I recall as about 4x drinking strength and washing soda at about twice the volume of coffee. Worked fine, but it's slow working, loses film speed (1/3 stop or so) and produces a lot of "general stain" aka fog.

titrisol · Aug 10, 2023

Donald was the gatekeeper of the Caffenol recipes.
Caffenol (original)
8 oz Water
2-1/2 tsp washing soda
4tsp Folger's crystals

You can find more recipes at https://caffenol.blogspot.com/

Did you really keep your developer for a month? For me it was always a 1-shot developer
Vitamin C/Erythorbate decreased the stain and increased the film speed slightly.

fgorga · Aug 10, 2023

Not sure exactly where you are located, but ascorbic acid (a synonym for vitamin C) in bulk form is readily available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ascorbic+acid+powder).

It is also probably available locally at places that sell supplies for canning fruits and vegetables.

Donald Qualls · Aug 10, 2023

fgorga said:
It is also probably available locally

I bought a pound of pure (supplement grade) ascorbic acid from a GNC health food store years ago, and more recently bought a similar size jar of sodium ascorbate from an Amazon seller.

Pioneer · Aug 10, 2023

christislord said:
I am trying to find some caffenol recipes that don't use Vitamin C and am struggling to find some. I am getting back into caffenol after about a year off (life gets busy) and when I had previously done caffenol development I just threw some coffee and washing soda together and made an awesome developer.
I am trying to get back into caffenol and followed a recipe that used Vitamin C and was quite disappointed. My old recipe seemed to give better results for my unique photographic taste. Also, my new recipe after a few days suffered from sudden developer death; my old recipe was good for at least a month.
I want a more "consistent" solution this time, and I would like one that doesn't use Vitamin C. So my question is where can I find some good recipes for caffenol that don't use vitamin c? Can I just leave the vitamin c out of a normal recipe and triple the dev time?

I have used a caffenol/C recipe to separately develop 3 rolls of film over the span of few hours in one day but I have never tried to hold onto it for a month. That is interesting; I wonder how well that would work? I may have to give it a test.

nascarfann · Aug 10, 2023

Pioneer said:
I have used a caffenol/C recipe to separately develop 3 rolls of film over the span of few hours in one day but I have never tried to hold onto it for a month. That is interesting; I wonder how well that would work? I may have to give it a test.

While, after a month the developer is still definitely active, but very weak. I had cut a pice of 35mm film and put it in a camera and I could see the area where the film had been exposed from being outside the canister but could not see the actual photo. Using this same method with day old developer produced a slightly flat image though I really liked it (keep in mind I was using c41 film).

Pioneer · Aug 10, 2023

It's worth a try.

I'll mix up the original recipe, cut the exposed film into 3 pieces, develop the first piece the day I mix the developer, develop the second piece the following day, and then do the final piece at the end of a week. We'll see what I get.

It is a sunny day in Northern Nevada. I won't even need a meter. Now where is my Holga and a roll of Arista EDU?

Donald Qualls · Aug 11, 2023

There's no preservative in Caffenol (at least the non-ascorbate variety), so I wouldn't expect it to give consistent results over as much as a day, never mind a month -- but I'm willing to be proved wrong!

Looking for good caffenol recipes without Vitamin C

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