caffenol.org

Beerol

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Since developing in wine is working just fine, here are some papers inserted in a self made pinhole cameras, developed in a beer. I used the cheapest beer I could get (Lövenbräu 4,2% alc). The papers were expired in 1960’s but still ok…

The recepie:

250 ml beer

2 teaspoons of soda

1 teaspoon of vitamin C

Chutney developer – Ajvarol

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ajvar (chutney) is a tasty and aromatic vegetable relish made of peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and spices. Ajvar is naturally rich in vitamin C/

Ilfospeed 3.1M paper developed in Ajvarol

Red beetroot juice developer – The beetrootol

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that almost anything that contains vegetables develops film if mixed with washing soda and vitamin C?

Alternative Recipes

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

On this page you will find alternative caffenol based recipes. Sometimes, no coffee is involved, as even in caffenol, phenols are the active component.

Piller Cuveeol

250 ml Wine
50 ml black currant juice
2 teaspoons of soda
1 teaspoon vitamin C

Wine was a very cheap Rosé (Piller Rosé, a local wine from croatia, but any Rosé should be fine)

The beetrootol red beetroot juice developer, expired Ilfospeed 3.1 M papers, self made pinholes

250 ml Red Beetroot juice
2 teaspoons of washing soda
1 teaspoon vitamin C

Welcome Tina Bele – Piller Cuveeol recipe

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Hello readers, I know it was pretty quiet last year here on the blog. It’s not that I had no new ideas or stuff to write about, but just very little time. This year I will hopefully have more time, as I have some pretty new stuff in the pipeline.

Merry Christmas

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2015!

Technical Pan in Caffenol-SMT / Mini Workshop

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I recently asked in the Caffenol Facebook group how I should shoot a roll of Kodak Technical Pan. Many people suggested I should shoot it at EI 25 or 50, but I also wanted to know if it is possible to get something useful out of it in EI 200. I took a stroll around a small lake near my workplace and fired away.

When the roll was exposed, I wanted to do something crazy, so I asked again on Facebook in which recipe it should be developed. After 9 suggestions and some calculations by averaging ingredients and times, I had my recipe. For the moment it is called Caffenol-SMT (Caffenol-SoMeThing).

A Coffee with…No. 7 – Becky Ramotowski

Tue, 04 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

After a long, long (too long) break, we continue with our Series “A Coffee with…” where we present analog enthusiasts and their work. Today I am happy to talk with Becky Ramotowski, who has a real passion about pinhole cameras and ‘marinating’ prints in caffenol. Becky also wrote an awesome book about the “Secrets of Stargazing”. If you are interested in Astronomy, I can highly recommend this book! Surprisingly, Becky doesn’t drink coffee but enjoys a good glass of red wine, tea or mountain water… (Which all of makes nice caffeic acid based developer) Becky is also a group admin in our beautiful Caffenol Facebook Group, so if you are a Facebook member, go ahead and join our group.

Merry Christmas

Tue, 24 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I wish all of you and your families a Merry, Merry Christmas!

LeiCaffenol – Caffenol Workshop in the Leica Gallery Salzburg

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Mark your calendars! I will teach a 2 days caffenol workshop from 31.08-01.09.2013 together with Marco Spalluto at the Leica Gallery Salzburg.

This 2 days workshop is suited for absolute beginners in film developing as well as for experienced users that already develop their films at home. No experience in film developing is needed for this workshop.

The only equipment needed is an analog 35mm camera and film. We have a small amount of loan cameras available.

A Coffee with…No. 6 – Gabriel Van Ingen

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today our journey takes us to Nottingham in the UK and we meet up with Gabriel Van Ingen, a photographer that has mostly given up digital. Read on, and look what he has to say.

Caffenol: Hi Gabriel, good to have you here on the caffenol blog. Could you please introduce yourself.

Gabriel: Hi Dirk, I am a photography lecturer and professional photographer based in Nottingham in the Uk. I work and live at Clear View House where I have a professional darkroom and photographic studio.

A Coffee with…No. 5 – Urban Hafner

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today we are in Grenoble, France to share some Espressos (You get an Espresso if you order “un café”) with a professional programmer. Read on, what Urban has to say about the analog world.

Caffenol: Hi Urban, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and lots of presents. Can you please introduce yourself.

Urban: My name is Urban Hafner. I’m a web developer from Germany. I currently live in France with my lovely wife and our two year old daughter.

Happy New Year 2013

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

All the best for the next year!

Any New Year Resolution?
I can give you some tips:

Shoot more Film!
Develop in caffenol!
Share the Love!

Sincerly,

Dirk

Merry Christmas!

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Next year we will of course continue ‘A Coffee with’ and I have some new films to test out. Let’s see what 2013 brings.

Enjoy the calm time of the year!

Fighting Dust

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I am declaring war. I can see, that I got your attention! What am I declaring war on? DUST!

I know that there are plenty of ways to remove dust from negatives in post, but the best way of course is to properly dry your negatives in a (nearly) dust-free room.

Top Tip here: hang your washed film in the bathroom and before you hang the film, turn on the shower with hot water for 1-2 minutes till you have a foggy bathroom, hang your film, and close the door. If you washed your film good enough, your negatives should come out pretty dust-free. And for all the remaining dust spots, or if you have scratched your film, lean back and watch my brandnew video on how to remove dust from a scanned negative, using Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.

The best developer is the one you have with you.

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Hey JCH readers, As we all share the love of film, and I know that some of you develop their films at home, you might have heard about a phenomenon called caffenol. But what is caffenol?

Caffenol is a B&W developer that is made out of household ingredients that can be bought in a drugstore and/or supermarket.:

Instant Coffee
Washing Soda
Vitamin C

The Caffenol Cookbook & Bible

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The Caffenol Cookbook & Bible is a project by large format photographer Bo Sibbern-Larsen who got eight other photographers together to write a book about caffenol. It’s a free book, available for download:

Download The Caffenol Cookbook & Bible – Recipes and Tutorials

The book is under constant development, so you will find quite some things that change from time to time – visit to visit. This is all done in our effort to serve you the finest and latest cutting edge Caffenol recipes from around the globe.

The Delta Recipe and about caffenol in general

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

When I first started caffenol, there where not so many recipes on the net, I think there where about 3 websites that had some information about caffenol. One of the best ressources at the time for me was digitaltruth, as they had a huge table about different films in different developers and also a caffenol recipe. They also have an iPhone app with the whole databsae in the palm of your hands which doubles as a developing timer. You can even store your own presets and so I started using it, noting down my experiments in the app, setting up presets.

A Coffee with…No. 4 – Christian Walch

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I share an Interview with a colleague of mine that works with me on the dark side of IT. (Windows) I am guilty of infecting him with the caffenol virus and to buy himself into the Pentax and Micro Four Thirds system 🙂 He is also a Hair Model.

Caffenol: Good Morning, Chris! Grab yourself some tea and: please introduce yourself.

Chris: Hi Dirk, it’s me, your colleague Chris. I’m raised and born in Munich and always looking for the opinion to do things differently.

A Coffee with…No. 3 – Şan Güneş

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

We are trying to get around the World, so this time I had a virtual coffee with Şan Güneş from Turkey. Şan is a some random computer engineering student, free software enthusiast and also happens to do some caffenol development. He also states that the Kebab that you can he here in Germany is different, but way better then the one in Turkey.

Caffenol: Hey Şan, I made some fresh turkish coffee with plenty of sugar. While I boil it a third time, please introduce yourself.

A Coffee with…No. 2 – Kiril Miloshev

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I have special guest here, It’s Kiril Miloshev from Sophia, Bulgary. He is a very nice chap and a group administrator of the caffenol Facebook group. He uses a good mixture of a Leica Rangefinder, a Nikon DSLR and a Nikon J1 Mirrorless camera. And I guess his office has the lovely smell of that caffenol developer floating around.

Can we start? Sure we can!

Caffenol: Hi Kiril, nice to have you here on the site. Please introduce yourself.

A Coffee with…No. 1 – Dagie Brundert

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A Coffee with Dagie Brundert

I am very, very excited to have my first coffee with Dagie Brundert, one of the few persons that attended an invisible baseball game. Dagies mission is to find beauty in simple things. oh and she does motion picture film!

Caffenol: Hi there, please introduce yourself.

Dagie: Hello, my name is Dagie Brundert, I’m a super 8 short film maker, I’ve been making films for more than 20 years and I’m very much in love with hand processing! I live in Berlin, Germany.

A Coffee with … The questions

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol readers! Wanna be featured on caffenol.org and show off your gear, tell interesting stories, post beautiful pictures? Just answer those questions and send them to me including some photos and we get you on the site.

Hi, I’m glad that we will have a coffee together. Take a seat and make yourself comfortable.

Can we start? Sure we can!

**Caffenol:**Please introduce yourself.

Caffenol: Anything else you want to add about you as a person?

A Coffee with… Dirk Essl

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Caffenol-Lovers,

There is a new series coming up on caffenol.org, called “A Coffee with…” Where you play the main part.

It is an interview type of series, where I will be asking some questions about you, your gear and other stuff.

I have announced it already on the caffenol facebook group and got quite some feedback already. I think it is a great way to get to know other photographers and read about other’s techniques and ideas. I will also use it to produce a database where to buy ingredients for successful caffenol development, as this varies from country to country. So you can give something back to the community. You can include your work, pictures of your gear, pictures of yourself, pictures of your darkroom or pictures of your favourite coffee cup. Everybody is keen on learning something about other caffenol-addicts. And hey, everyone is invited to have a coffee with me.

Coffee in motion

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Developing 35mm film in caffenol works. No doubt. There are very little films that do not develop in caffenol. If you stay away from these and mostly scan your pictures, you will be fine. With any caffenol-recipe that you can find on the internet you will in the end see a picture on the negative. It might be foggy, dense, underdeveloped, but seeing something that works and something that you made yourself is always amazing. Film is not dead!

Hot Coffee

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Someone in the caffenol Facebook group asked if there is a faster development process then caffenol, and I referred him to Diafine, a quite fast 2 step developer. (3+3 minutes for most films.) At the same time I thought that this should allbe possible with normal caffenol, as it is possible with all film developers: You increase temperature, you reduce time. Normally, higher temperature adds contrast, but if you develop for too short (temperature too high), you may get uneven development.

Wineol – Red Wine developer

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Niklas Rühl posted a picture in our Facebook Group of a negative developed in Wineol, an alternate devolper that is made out of Red Wine, Washing Soda and Vitamin C. The whole process and some really nice pictures can be seen on his website. The site is in German,so here is a google translation. I knew already that it is possible to mix up other developers which are based on Washing Soda and Vitamin C, but never really had the interest to try it. But as I did some enlargements recently, why don’t try it as a paper developer. That said I took the cheapest Red Wine I have and mixed up some developer. As I always use plenty of Vitamin C in my recipes, I used the following formula:

Organizing your caffenol scans in Lightroom®

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

2 weeks ago I did a bit of spring cleaning in my Lightroom® catalog and thought about how I could properly tag all my scans. I don’t mean keywords, but proper EXIF tags to see Camera Model, Lens and all that stuff in my EXIF Panel in Lightroom® so I can search them through the Metadata Library Filter.

So I found ExifTool, a command-line utility which allows to read, write and create EXIF tags in all sorts of files. A few shell scripts later I was still not satisfied, because of course my files are all spread over in my filesystem, so changing EXIF tags in files over different folders would mean exporting and reimporting pictures.

Fomapan 400 in Caffenol-STD – Experiments and Results. And Large Format

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This is an article of fine art figure photographer Scott Nichol from Allentown, PA, USA. You can visit his blog at http://www.silverystars.com/somanystars/. The Original article can be found here.

I wanted to experiment with the recipe for a coffee-based film developer commonly called Caffenol. Dirk Essl at caffenol.org does an excellent job of keeping track of development times for lots of different films that can be developed with Caffenol. However, most of the films that have been developed using this unique developer were films like Ilford HP5+ and Delta 400, neither of which I had any 4×5 stock at the moment. I did, however, have a good supply of Fomapan 400 and seeing as how development times for Fomapan and the Ilford films were similar, I decided to have a go at it. Initially, I decided just to follow the recommendation for Ilford Delta 400 of 9 minutes at 68°F.

We are still here!

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

just a quick post to tell everyone of our readers that we are still alive and keep experimenting with caffenol in all variants. I recently got an email about developing glas negatives in caffenol, so interesting times are coming. For the moment I will leave you with a picture one of our readers sent me. Maybe you want to guess what it is and how the picture was made.

Merry Christmas!

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I would like to wish everyone of you a Merry, Merry Christmas. Thanks for all the comments, lovely pictures and ideas that you sent me in the last year. I hope I will have some more time next year to fill this blog with new recipes and experiments around caffenol.

See you next year,
Dirk

Kodak Portra 100T

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

While sorting out my Camera Cabinet I found a Roll of exposed Kodak Portra 100T (Tungsten). This film is not available new anymore, used prices of expired film go from 6 to 20 EUROs.

I had no clue when, what and with which camera I shot it. That’s one of the things I like with analog film: You never really know what you get until you develop the roll. I developed it in Delta-STD for 14 minutes and it came out quite nicely, but most of the pictures where badly composed, under or overexposed, so I can only show 3 examples. From seeing the pictures I could identify the camera: My lovely Russian Rangefinder Zorki 4. I had no Lightmeter at the time, so exposure was off on most shots. Auto Levels in Photoshop gives a nice brownish toning, but that doesn’t work on all pictures, so I converted one of them to ‘real’ B&W.

Caffenol for paper prints

Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a long time since there was an article here on caffenol.org and I know that some of you are really looking forward to see more pictures of prints developed in Caffenol. I have received very nice results from József, a Hungarian mechanical engineer, coffee addict and lover of analogue b&w photography and good wines.

József writes:

Caffenol came to my life as a crazy idea. Some months ago I found a short description of Caffenol in a Hungarian photography forum. It was enough to wake up the curiosity in me so I began to search for additional info about it. Then I decided to try… The first attempt was an expired (and forgot in the camera) Fuji Superia 400 colour negative. It worked, I had very promising result so I knew that I must go on with this coffee soup. But I found the paper development more exciting.

Pictures from the sea (literally, as far as fixer concerns)

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Today I will post some pictures, that show how much fun experimenting with Caffenol can be.

Igor says:

“These pictures were taken about 3 years ago and were developed without any professional equipment in a pan. we were sitting in a dark bathroom stiring the film in caffenol with a spoon:) that is why those pictures are not so technically perfect. But it was all about fun. Also I should add that sea water was used as a fixer here.”

Rollei Retro 100 Tonal

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I wrote an article about an extremely cheap film, the wonderful Lucky SHD 100. Today I will post some images from a film that is on the more expensive side: Rollei Retro 100 Tonal. With EURO 5.36 It’s still cheaper then Ilford HP5, but more expensive then Ilford Delta 100 which is EURO 4.99 and shares the same boxspeed.

1 year caffenol.org – a flashback

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Back in October 2009 I read some crazy stuff about developing expired color film in Coffee and Washing Soda, and was blown away about the results you could get with cheap instant coffee and cheap washing soda. So I thought I’ll give it a try. During Summer I was hunting for old cameras on several flea markets and already had done some shootings with them, but giving the films to the lab and letting them scan them. After I read about this ‘caffenol’ thing, I bought a daylight Developing Tank from ebay, an Agfa Rondinax 35, some coffee and some soda. I loaded some Fujicolor 1600 into my Zorki 4and walked around through my flat. I don’t remember exactly which recipe I used and had no idea if it would work at all. This is one of the first pictures I ever did in caffenol:

Rollei RPX 400 (was:Retro 400S)

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Correction! I mixed up negatives while scanning, And just found out that This Film is NOT Rollei Retro 400S, but Rollei RPX 400 instead.

Apologies from my side, for the moment, I do not recommend using Rollei Retro 400S for caffenol, because my results are somewhat inconsistent with this film. One came out totally black, and one came out totally underdeveloped. I have just loaded another 400S into my trusty Olympus XA and will try again.

Lucky SHD 100 – film can not be cheaper

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I got a testbatch from MACO of Lucky SHD 100, a very popular Film used by Photography students in the UK. No wonder, this film is almost cheaper then bread. If it could be eaten, I would. If you buy a set of 10 Films, you pay about EURO 1,62 per film.

“Lucky New SHD 100, with high clarity, wide exposure latitude, and good physical characteristics, can meet various requirements such as high-temperature and high-humidity. It features processed functions of resisting adhesion and scratch, and widely used in portrait, adv, landscape, journey and art photography etc.”

Agfa Copex Rapid in Delta-MICRO

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

If you are looking for a (very) high resolution and (very) contrasty Black and white film, you have probably looked at Agfa Copex Rapid film already, but have not ordered it because it’s high price (about EURO 6,– per Roll). I got some testrolls recently from Maco Direct to try how it behaves in caffenol. This film is not so easy to handle and there is not so much information about it, as it is specified as microfilm and can be used in x-ray cameras. Resolution is about 600 lines/mm (Fuji Velvia 50 is rated to resolve 160 lines per millimeter) so the film will outperform any Lens you have, easily. It complies to ISO 10602 and has a life expectance of 500 years. The Film base is made of PET and curls like Hell, even if you hang it with film weights. The emulsion scratches easily when wet, so please give this film a good wash before you wipe it, or don’t wipe it at all.

The Delta Recipe Goes Standard.

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We have received several comments, that teaspoon measuring is not the preferred way in mixing up your caffenol brew, as it is very inaccurate and ‘1 teaspoon’ can mean from 1 to 5 grams, depending how big your teaspoon is.

Reinhold from caffenol.blogspot.com has developed some very good base recipes, using only litres and grams, and especially his chart at http://caffenol.blogspot.com/2010/08/recipes.html can be extremely useful, I just find it irritating that coffee is not on top of the list of ingredients 🙂

Matchbox Pinhole & Caffenol

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol Reader and Lomography member Hana (http://www.lomography.com/homes/hilarion) sent us her results of a matchbox pinhole camera. Instructions how to build one can be found at http://www.matchboxpinhole.com.

Hanas Matchboxpinhole camera

Hana is from Slovakia and uses vitamin c from DM drogeri, an unknown coffee brand and “kalcinovaná sóda na pranie”, a local soda product.

Below is a selection of her pinhole photos, all wonderful examples how beautiful pinhole photography can be:

Happy New Year!

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a busy year for caffenol, and 2011 will not calm down, that’s for sure.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support, your comments and critics about this blog. I wish you and your families a very happy year 2011.

I didn’t take any fireworks pictures this year, but hope a fire engine is close enough 🙂 Film used here is Rollei RPX 400, developed for 11min. in Caffenol Delta-STD. What Delta-STD exactly is, will follow…

Caffenol as paper developer

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol-C in all variants makes a wonderful developer for negative film and if used carefully, it can be used for nearly any film speed and a lot of different films. So far I have found one (1) film, that fails in Caffenol: Rollei Retro 400. But this might have been just my fault, so I have just bought a few rolls of this film to make further experiments.

There are not so many examples about using caffenol as a per developer, so I had to try it. Mainly because I had no print developer to hand when my darkroom was built. And as I had no film to develop and I was sorting my negatives, I thought I give it a try.

caffenomatography

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If you are new to film developing, or just new to caffenol developing you can find plenty of ressources on the internet and read your way through. But sometimes it’s nice to lean back and watch something beautiful, and while watching it, learn from it. When I started with caffenol, I watched a whole lot of videos about developing, discovering different techniques. There are a lot of videos, this I can tell. And I can tell you, that this one is the most beautiful video about developing film in caffenol. Punkt.

Film, etc.

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

www.filmetc.org

Today, I proudly present a blog of a friend of mine who calls himself “a Linux sysadmin at day and photographer at night (and vice-versa).”

The address is www.filmetc.org

He is indeed a very talented photographer and if Mathias does something, he does it right. His blog is all about processing film inside and outside the darkroom and he has just started it, so you can start reading without much backlog. He will keep you updated soon, so the cold winter days will not get too boring while you are scanning all your pictures from windy fall.

Action!

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I cleaned up my camera cabinet yesterday and stumbled upon my Action sampler camera where I remembered I shot some film with already. My Action sampler is a no name model, but is better than the one from Lomography in so many ways: It has a proper viewfinder, it is not as ugly and it was only 2 EUROS, new. Not in a nice box as from Lomography, but hey it’s not the boxing that takes pictures.

more Kodak Porta 160 NC

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I went to a Photo fair the other weekend and bought another, small camera that I always had an eye on: The Olympus XA. It is in excellent condition, came with the A11 Flash and a small bag. It had already batteries installed and as I always carry a Film canister with some film with me, it was obvious to put it in: 36 Exposures of 2007 expired Kodak Porta 160 NC. A wonderful color film, that comes out great in caffenol. The XA has only full ISO stops, so I dialed in ISO 200 and began shooting. I immediately fell in love with the little rangefinder. the aperture setting is in a bit weird place, but very nice to operate. Maximum shutter speed is 1/500s. so medium speed Film is ideal for this camera. So lean back and have a look on the pictures:

Recipes

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Caffenol Recipes that are proven to work can be found here. If not stated differently, the temperature of the solution should be 20 degrees Celsius or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. For all other temperatures, please adjust the developing time accordingly.

If you have never used caffenol before, I suggest that you start with films that are proven to deliver decent results, for example the 400 ISO films [Ilford HP5 Plus](/2011/03/06/rollei-rpx-400-wasretro-400s/, or [Kodak TMAX 400](/2010/10/12/kodak-t-max-from-t-grain-to-coffee-granules/. Slow films that work are Ilford FP4 (ISO 125) and [Ilford PanF](/2010/09/20/orwo-pan-100/ (ISO 50). Developing times and links to example pictures can be found in the [Film Development Chart](/film-development-chart/.

Scan VS print

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, the title of this post looks confusing, because of course scanning is an input process and printing is an output process. Ad it’s even more confusing, as the print needs to be scanned as well… But first things first.

My last development of ISO 3200 Film was quite successful and I was quite surprised by the results. The negatives didn’t look as good as HP5 or TMAX but I thought those could be actually ‘thick’ enough to be enlarged onto paper.

Density

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If you read a bit about caffenol development or development in general, you will quickly learn phrases like “my negatives came out very dense” or “negatives where thin, but scanned fine”. So what does all that mean?

If you develop color films in caffenol, most likely you will get dense negatives (dense meaning you cannot see through the film in this case), positive films and High ISO films will be denser then low ISO films. These negatives are not very good to produce prints on paper, as contrast is quite low and they have an orange mask. High ISO B&W Films will most likely come out very thin and will look like underdeveloped negatives. Both types will scan fine and with a small amount of Post Processing (Level adjustments) they will look good on a screen.

Caffeafine (Using Caffenol-C as 2 step developer)

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A friend of mine recently told me about Diafine, a quite famous dual solution developer that is said to push mid tones by 1 stop. Diafine is a compensating developer, meaning you put in Solution A, let the film rest for 4 minutes with maybe 1 slow agitation per minute, pour out Solution A (both solutions can be reused) and then put in Solution B and let it develop further 4 minutes with agitation that is specific to the used film.

Kodak T-MAX – from T-Grain to Coffee granules

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Some may be surprised that it took me so long to try out Kodak TMAX 400 in caffenol, but that’s how I am, always wanting to try out something new, something different.

A friend of mine gave me a roll of TMAX 400 because he said he really likes it. It’s a Tabular-grain-film like the Delta films from Ilford where the silver halide crystals are more flat and tabular.

Kodak says it is the sharpest, fined grained ISO 400 film and it pushes up to EI 1600. So why not taking it to the Construction of the Oktoberfest in Munich and shoot at dusk with a slow Lens, a Tamron 28-80 f3.5-5.6

ORWO PAN 100

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Recently someone gave me two rolls of ORWO PAN 100, a panchromatic Black and White film, made here in Germany. ORWO still sells it as medium speed surveillance film, but I don’t know if the emulsion nowadays is the same as the one from the film that I’ve got. This panchromatic film has the characteristic to be sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, producing a very realistic image.

Both Rolls are expired long ago (1996) and so I was not really expecting good results as I didn’t know how the FIlm has been stored over the years. I loaded it into my [Revue 35CC (my Espresso Camera)](/espresso-camera/ “Espresso Camera” and began shooting from EI 100 to 800. Results are quite usable, but I find the grain not so appealing. Contrast wise this film behaves quite good, so I might consider buying a few fresh rolls to see if the grain is the result from the expired emulsion. Nevertheless this Film can now be found in the [Film Development Chart](/film-development-chart/ “Film Development Chart”,

ISO 50

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

When I started analogue photography, I wanted to shoot on grainy high speed films primarily, preferable at night. So far I have not managed to do a grainy night shooting, but did buy a lot of different films just to see, how they look in caffenol. So this week I tried Ilford Pan F 50, a panchromatic ISO 50 film. And as I currently have an Olympus OM4-Ti, it was just perfect to try out the spot metering features of it.

The Espresso Camera

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Small, black, fast. This is how you can describe the Revue 35CC. The camera was also sold as Chinon Bellami and has a very unique opening mechanism using the advance lever. Some people call it a ‘barn door’ camera, as the lever opens two doors and extends the Lens.

Features are minimalistic: 35mm f2.8 Lens, Program AE, Scale Focus.
A dedicated (automatic) Flash can be added to the camera, which makes the camera perfect as pocketable party cam.

Smena Symbol – The other LOMO

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I just love going on a flea market and buying any camera that the owner is willing to give away for under 5 EURO. Just like this wonderful Smena Symbol. A plastic camera from Russia, made in the LOMO factory. It features a 40mm f4 lens and weather symbols as additional shutter speed scale. The lens has a stepless aperture, which doubles as ISO setting. You can read more about this camera on Camerapdia.

Harmony Recipe

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Josh Harmon was kind enough to share his caffenol recipe and sent me two nice pictures, developed in caffenol. They show how flexible caffenol is, and that there is enough room for experiments.
The films he tried are Arista EDU 100 (fomapan 100) and an old TMAX 100:

Locked Gate, Arista EDU 100

Goodbye Leica

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I had a Leica M6 for loan for quite some time, but gave it back recently. What can I say about this camera? It’s beautiful, gorgeous and so unobtrusive at the same time. Paired wit the 35mm f2 this is an ideal street shooter. Here are the last shots I took with the M6. All on Kodak Porta 160 NC, developed in Caffenol-C. This film looks stunning in Caffenol. If you are in the need for a low speed film with some very nice film grain, you really should consider this type, even if it is a color film.

Stars galore!

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So we finally found a day, where there are clear skies and packed our car with some Equipment. As Wolfgang bought a new 200mm Newton Telescope, we didn’t take too much Photography Equipment as we would be really busy enjoying the view of Saturn through a 8mm Ocular. But I left the shutter open for 4 hours on my Zorki 4. I think I can be proud of a shot of startrails, that is not boring 🙂 Ilford HP5 Plus Developed in Caffenol-C+ (3x Vitamin-C to decrease grain).

Found film

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On a recent flea-market I bought a Revue 35CC with some Film inside for very, very little money. The camera had a stuck shutter, so I took the half exposed film out and cleaned the camera. Fresh batteries and voila, the little Revue is alive again. I developed the film in caffenol (what else), a Kodak Gold 200. The last two frames where really interesting, as they show the inside of a camera shop, supposing the owner bought a new camera on this date. He forgot to take out the film, though. If you recognize the place or the little kid, please give me a shout 🙂

Stir until smooth!

Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Because of the really bad weather, we had no chance to do our [caffenol astroshooting](/2010/05/05/caffenol-goes-astrophotography/. So instead of going shooting, we mixed up some developer and spent the last days with developing and scanning film. So hold on, we will post some more stuff soon.

Caffenol goes Astrophotography

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There is not so much happening here at the moment, because I have bought too many cameras in the last weeks and need to finish all the films.

But I am quite excited about one event that will take place next week. We will head towards Sudelfeld and shoot at about 1700 meters height. And will shoot the stars. Mostly digital Cameras will be used, but I will take some analog equipment with me to shoot star trails throough the whole night. And to add some crazyness, I will of course then develop the whole lot of films in caffenol.

Neutral Color in B&W

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I have a fair amount of Kodak Professional Portra 160 NC (Neutral Color) but never tried it out. Having still the Hartblei Tilt-Shift on my Canon 3000N, I thought I should give it go. And low ISO film always comes out great in Caffenol.

Here are the results:

The H, the P, the 5, the Plus

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

As said in the [last post](/2010/03/24/got-film/ “Got Film?”, it was time for a new film, the HP5 Plus from Ilford. Carefully exposed with my trusty Canon 3000N, crazily shot with a 65mm Super Rotator from Hartblei. Developed using the [Delta Recipe](/2010/03/12/the-delta-recipe-delta-std/ “The Delta Recipe” .

Let the pictures speak for themselves:

Film Development Chart

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

**The following times are guidelines and depend on many factors, like type of coffee, washing soda and Vitamin C used. If you have different results with the values shown here, please let me know and we will work out the difference.
If you click on the Film type, you will be taken to a post with an example picture if available.

Color/B&W?	Film Type	ISO	Recipe	Dev	Comments
BW	Ilford Delta 400	400	Delta-STD	09:00
BW	Ilford Delta 3200	3200	Delta-STD	12:00
BW	Ilford HP5 Plus	400	Delta-STD	10:00
BW	Ilford PANF 50	50	Delta-STD	07:45	High Contrast
Color	Kodak Gold 200	200	Delta-STD	11:00
Color	Kodak Porta 160 NC	160	Delta-STD	11:00
Color	Fujicolor 1600	1600	FCA	30:00	very dense
BW	ORWO PAN 100	100	Delta-STD	11:00	quite grainy
BW	Kodak TMAX 400	400	Delta-STD	11:00
BW	Agfa Copex Rapid	32	Delta-MICRO	17:00	Very high contrast
BW	Lucky SHD 100	100	Delta-STD	14:00
BW	Fomapan 400	400	Delta-STD	12:00

film time processing chart

Got Film?

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

As I am pretty confident with Ilford Delta Professional 400 now, let’s switch to another Film, which is quite popular in the B&W scene as well: Ilford HP5 Plus 400

Ilford HP5 Plus

As I want to ensure to have correct exposure on my first Roll, I decided to use my Canon EOS 3000N.
But to add some fun value to it, I mount the Hartblei Super-Rotator 65/f3.5 onto the Camera:

Hold on. Color film?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Well, you can develop every kind of film in Caffenol (a B&W process, that is) as long as it contains silver. So why not push that to the extreme and use an expired ISO 1600 Film and develop it in Caffenol.

Salt & Pepper

Voigtlaender Vitoret DR f2.8 1/30s.

Fujicolor 1600, expired 2004
Developped in caffenol (No-C) for 30 minutes.

The negative comes out very dense, but as I primarily scan the negatives, this is not a problem.

Instant?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here is the result of developing an instant film in Caffenol.
The Film is a Polaroid PolaPan 35mm:

Polaroid PolaPan 35mm

I first tried if the Filmleader would clear in fixer and threw it in Ilford Radpid Fixer 1:4.

The emulsion (which is quite thick) separates from the Film base, and that’s it.

Then I’ve mixed up developer and developed for 13 minutes at 20 degrees. Stop bath (water) and 5 minutes fix. I did not wash extensively, as I was afraid of washing off the emulsion which might show an image.

The Delta Recipe (Delta-STD)

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

My Favourite B&W Film is Ilford Professional Delta 400 for the moment. I really like the grain shape of this film: soft and round.

Whenever I plan to do Caffenol Development, I overexpose the Film by 1/2 or stop, but that’s just me. As usual on negative film: Expose for the shadows. I will not go too deep into Zone Metering, but maybe it is worth mentioning it from time to time.

About

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This site gives Information about developing film in alternate chemicals, which can be found at home or bought in a supermarket or drugstore. We want to create one place where you can find all the information you need to do successful film development in Caffenol. If you want to see more even more Example shots, I recommend the Caffenol Facebook group and some Flickr groups

We are always looking for guest writers who share their knowledge with us, so if you have something to add, please contact me at dirk@essl.de or use the contact form:

Elevate

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On this site you will get loads of Informations about Film Development in Caffenol:

Recipies for all kind of different FIlms with Examples
Cameratips
Tips on how to get the best result out of your Coffe
How to scan your developped Film
How to develop prints in Caffenol
Downloads of Lightroom presets

To give you an Example, the following picture was shot with a Leica M6, 35mm f2 Summicron on Ilford Delta 400 Film.

caffenol.org

Beerol

Chutney developer – Ajvarol

Red beetroot juice developer – The beetrootol

Alternative Recipes

Piller Cuveeol

The beetrootolred beetroot juice developer, expired Ilfospeed 3.1 M papers, self made pinholes

Welcome Tina Bele – Piller Cuveeol recipe

Merry Christmas

Technical Pan in Caffenol-SMT / Mini Workshop

A Coffee with…No. 7 – Becky Ramotowski

Merry Christmas

LeiCaffenol – Caffenol Workshop in the Leica Gallery Salzburg

A Coffee with…No. 6 – Gabriel Van Ingen

A Coffee with…No. 5 – Urban Hafner

Happy New Year 2013

Merry Christmas!

I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fighting Dust

The best developer is the one you have with you.

The Caffenol Cookbook & Bible

Download The Caffenol Cookbook & Bible – Recipes and Tutorials

The Delta Recipe and about caffenol in general

A Coffee with…No. 4 – Christian Walch

A Coffee with…No. 3 – Şan Güneş

A Coffee with…No. 2 – Kiril Miloshev

A Coffee with…No. 1 – Dagie Brundert

A Coffee with Dagie Brundert

A Coffee with … The questions

A Coffee with… Dirk Essl

Coffee in motion

Hot Coffee

Wineol – Red Wine developer

Organizing your caffenol scans in Lightroom®

Fomapan 400 in Caffenol-STD – Experiments and Results. And Large Format

We are still here!

Merry Christmas!

Kodak Portra 100T

Caffenol for paper prints

Pictures from the sea (literally, as far as fixer concerns)

Rollei Retro 100 Tonal

1 year caffenol.org – a flashback

Rollei RPX 400 (was:Retro 400S)

Correction! I mixed up negatives while scanning, And just found out that This Film is NOT Rollei Retro 400S, but Rollei RPX 400 instead.

Lucky SHD 100 – film can not be cheaper

Agfa Copex Rapid in Delta-MICRO

The Delta Recipe Goes Standard.

Matchbox Pinhole & Caffenol

Happy New Year!

Caffenol as paper developer

caffenomatography

Film, etc.

Action!

more Kodak Porta 160 NC

Recipes

Scan VS print

Density

Caffeafine (Using Caffenol-C as 2 step developer)

Kodak T-MAX – from T-Grain to Coffee granules

ORWO PAN 100

ISO 50

The Espresso Camera

Smena Symbol – The other LOMO

Harmony Recipe

Goodbye Leica

Stars galore!

Found film

Stir until smooth!

Caffenol goes Astrophotography

Neutral Color in B&W

The H, the P, the 5, the Plus

Film Development Chart

Got Film?

Hold on. Color film?

Instant?

The Delta Recipe (Delta-STD)

About

Elevate

The beetrootol red beetroot juice developer, expired Ilfospeed 3.1 M papers, self made pinholes