Web Archeology coffee developer

Tombadil · Jun 20, 2023

Looking at https://web.archive.org/ I found a "Shutterbug" article from September 2003 with a homemade developer formula. Will it still work?
Or the coffee is no longer as it was before...

Buscando en https://web.archive.org/ encontré un articulo de shutterbug de septiembre de 2003 con una formula de revelado casero . ¿Funcionará aun ?
O el café ya no es como era antes...

Xylo · Jun 20, 2023

That's definitely an oldie.
While those formulas do work, they've been rendered really obsolete by more modern ones that can be found in the caffenol cookbook (https://www.caffenol.org/2012/11/27/the-caffenol-cookbook-bible/)
Thing is that the ones in Shutterbug will tend to produce low contrast and high fog, things that have been pretty much resolved in the modern formulas.

Also, years ago it's been found that it's not the caffeine in the formula that develops the film but the caffeic acid.
If you take some caffeine pills and use those instead of the regular brown stuff, you get a blank film. So the article is a bit misleading.

Todd Niccole · Jun 21, 2023

Caffenol is horrible. It's low speed, high fog and super grainy. I wouldn't waste your time.

Xylo · Jun 21, 2023

Todd Niccole said:
Caffenol is horrible. It's low speed, high fog and super grainy. I wouldn't waste your time.

Well, it depends a lot on the emulsion. There are a lot of recipes and you really have to adapt them to the film.
If you don't do that the results are a bit $#!tty.
I've developed some Foma 400 with really outstanding results with it (Caffenol CH with Kbr replaced by table salt if I remember), much better than HC-110 (dil.B) which tends to give this film way too much contrast when shot at box speed.

fs999 · Jun 22, 2023

Todd Niccole said:
Caffenol is horrible. It's low speed, high fog and super grainy. I wouldn't waste your time.

Totaly false.

Todd Niccole · Jun 22, 2023

And I forgot to add it stinks like rotten fish too.

titrisol · Jun 22, 2023

That article came in response to the research of Dr Williams at RIT (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232131859.pdf)
When it came it sparked the folgernol/caffenol wave of developers.

Check that caffenol book, and look in the web archive for silent observer recipes for improved versions.
And yes it does work with instant cofffee (

Xylo · Jun 22, 2023

Todd Niccole said:
And I forgot to add it stinks like rotten fish too

That, I must admit that it's not the best smelling developer out there. And you should try it with crushed blueberry vitamin C tablets! These things might taste good, but once dissolved, strained and mixed with the sodium carbonate, they can make you lose your lunch.

But if you use the flavorless ascorbic acid crystals that are recommended, it just smells like yesterday's coffee.

Web Archeology coffee developer

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