My first caffenol attempt....

[ChristopherCoy]

I dumped it.

 

[RichardH]

I use the c-l formula and stand develops for 60 minutes. Best negatives by far.
I only use arm + hammer washing powder. I have read where baking soda won't work so I have never tried it.

 

[Regular Rod]

When I used Caffenol I chose the basic Nescafe instant as it was freely obtainable from the local Co-Op. I'm not sure about your use of home cooked sodium bicarbonate to try and make sodium carbonate. Sodium Carbonate anhydrous is easy to source, it's even on eBay!

Try again with real sodium carbonate. You need it for the alkali...

Persevere because it's a very good developer. If Pyro and Catechol were not such fantastic reducers I'd still be using Caffenol.

RR

 

[pdeeh]

even decahydrate is fine, a pound a bag from the coop.
Just need to use 2.7x the specified amount for anhydrous.

more info on washing soda and caffenol on this page at reinhold's blog http://caffenol.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/soda-myth-and-truth_07.html

 

[ChristopherCoy]

When I used Caffenol I chose the basic Nescafe instant as it was freely obtainable from the local Co-Op. I'm not sure about your use of home cooked sodium bicarbonate to try and make sodium carbonate. Sodium Carbonate anhydrous is easy to source, it's even on eBay!

Try again with real sodium carbonate. You need it for the alkali...

Persevere because it's a very good developer. If Pyro and Catechol were not such fantastic reducers I'd still be using Caffenol.

RR

I dont know how much I want to perservere. This kinda turned me off. If it was a case of bad negatives, or grainy negatives I may go on. But in this case where there is NO negatives... I'm a more than hesitant to try it again. Especially when I can go to the camera shop on my lunch hour and pick up some XTOL.

 

[removed account4]

totally understand, when melted off my emulsion i didn't use caffenol for about 6 months
and i haven't used my rotary processor since ...

you have the ingredients, if you ever want to try again ... just get different coffee
folgers works, nescafé works if in france, "old gringo" works at shaws - medium roast instant works
and so far the beans i use haven't failed me ... some instants are "upscale" and use
arabica beans instead robusta .. ( like via ) .. its too bad the good coffee has spread to
instant too ...

 

[ChristopherCoy]

totally understand, when melted off my emulsion i didn't use caffenol for about 6 months
and i haven't used my rotary processor since ...

you have the ingredients, if you ever want to try again ... just get different coffee
folgers works, nescafé works if in france, "old gringo" works at shaws - medium roast instant works
and so far the beans i use haven't failed me ...

WHY did it melt off though?

Is it because I used baked baking soda? Is it because I used cheap Family Dollar brand instant coffee? Did I not wait long enough before pouring it in? Is it because I did a presoak? Do I need to chill my liquid because the water was about 80F degrees out of the faucet?

 

[pentaxuser]

Never used TriX but unless it has a pinkish colour then something made it pink. Well that's the colour I see on my VDU.

My normal reaction would have been to say that if there are no scenes and no frame numbers you used fixer first.

Even if your process wasn't perfect no-one seem to be saying that there was enough wrong with the ingredients to leave the film blank

Very strange

pentaxuser

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I'll go home and blow a roll of 120 in the kodak brownie and try again tonight. It'll give me a reason to try the kodak brownie with the flash adapter I bought.


I guess I'll stop at the grocery store and see if I can find washing powder too, instead of trying to bake baking soda.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Finally found some!!!

 

[removed account4]

WHY did it melt off though?

Is it because I used baked baking soda? Is it because I used cheap Family Dollar brand instant coffee? Did I not wait long enough before pouring it in? Is it because I did a presoak? Do I need to chill my liquid because the water was about 80F degrees out of the faucet?

for me the emulsion melted off because my developer was 80ºF
i'd chill it before using it ... ( that might have been your problem )

i don't think your trouble is because you used baking soda you purged water from, or waiting ... i never wait ..
if you are worried about the coffee, i'd just get nescafé or folgers ... i'd do the photo paper thing
to see if it turns black that will tell you if your developer is active ... it will save you the stress of ruining another roll of film...

good luck !
john

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Second attempt.

Ilford HP5 120 shot with Brownie Kodak Hawkeye (known to be working and tested)
80 degree water before mixing
Mixed chemicals according to cookbook (noticeable stink difference this time)
Coffee was less foamy
82 degree water after mixing.


Presoak for a couple minutes. Anti-halation coating came off well as normal.

Going in!


ETA: I'm just seeing your message about the 80 degree water now John. But its too late. I've got 2 minutes left until the stop bath. Crossing my fingers!!

 

[ChristopherCoy]

It would appear that this time I have images! Washing for five minutes now.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

SUCCESS!!!

That is clearly a photo of my greyhound!

 

[removed account4]

It would appear that this time I have images! Washing for five minutes now.

STOKED!

i am very happy it worked

nice negs too

 

[ChristopherCoy]

STOKED!

i am very happy it worked

nice negs too

Me too!

A reversed and very quickly retouched cell phone pic of the negatives. Can't wait to wet print this over the weekend!!

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I do believe..... that I'm going to enjoy this whole "instant-coffee-make your own-developer" thing.

 

[removed account4]

sweet!
nice photographs ( and pooch ) !

easy to print i bet

hope you dont turn into an addict, caffenol addicts are kind of crazed :eek:

 

[Regular Rod]

I do believe..... that I'm going to enjoy this whole "instant-coffee-make your own-developer" thing.

See! Worth persevering for! Beautiful dog BTW...

RR

 

[pentaxuser]

I'd have been amazed if 80 or even 82 degrees Fahrenheit produced problems with the emulsion on a tough film like HP5+. By mistake I once washed mine for may be 15-30 secs in water that was way more than mid 80s and no issues

So any idea as to what went wrong with the first film? Frankly I still suspect fix first but whatever it was here's hoping that it has been eliminated

pentaxuser

 

[ChristopherCoy]

See! Worth persevering for! Beautiful dog BTW...

RR

Thanks! She's a retired racer that we adopted from the racetrack. He racing name is DLT Dragonslayer, but we call her Slayer. Sometimes Satan... LOL

 

[ChristopherCoy]

I'd have been amazed if 80 or even 82 degrees Fahrenheit produced problems with the emulsion on a tough film like HP5+. By mistake I once washed mine for may be 15-30 secs in water that was way more than mid 80s and no issues

So any idea as to what went wrong with the first film? Frankly I still suspect fix first but whatever it was here's hoping that it has been eliminated

pentaxuser

The only think I did different was use the washing soda that I posted a picture of. Maybe baking sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) wasn't good enough...or maybe I didn't bake it long enough? I know the texture of the washing soda was different than the baking soda after baking.

The only other variable is the camera, but as Matt said even the words on the film were gone.

I can say that the presoak on the first roll didn't wash the anti-halation layer off like I am used to.

Other than that, I mixed everything in exactly the same steps, the same way, with the same water from the same faucet, and used the same developing times.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

....and now that I'm thinking about it. That roll of film sat in my hot car for a couple of days before I brought it in to develop it. I had forgot it in the center console....

So maybe the excessive heat killed it before it even had a chance to be put in the chemicals.

I had forgot about that.....

 

[MattKing]

....and now that I'm thinking about it. That roll of film sat in my hot car for a couple of days before I brought it in to develop it. I had forgot it in the center console....

So maybe the excessive heat killed it before it even had a chance to be put in the chemicals.

I had forgot about that.....

Heat won't kill it - just make it old (go grey) before its time.

All developers need all of their component parts to work properly. In some cases, if you miss something, it won't work at all.

If the job of the baking soda/washing soda was to change the pH to a range that permits all the rest of the components to work (i.e. to reduce the exposed silver halides), and the soda doesn't do its job, the rest of the components may not have been able to do their jobs.

If the exposed silver halides aren't reduced by the developer, then the fixer will just remove them from the film.

 

[Regular Rod]

Heat won't kill it - just make it old (go grey) before its time.

All developers need all of their component parts to work properly. In some cases, if you miss something, it won't work at all.

If the job of the baking soda/washing soda was to change the pH to a range that permits all the rest of the components to work (i.e. to reduce the exposed silver halides), and the soda doesn't do its job, the rest of the components may not have been able to do their jobs.

If the exposed silver halides aren't reduced by the developer, then the fixer will just remove them from the film.

Exactly!

RR