Folgernol: The alternative Process.

Try researching Caffenol. I think it's probably the same thing as Folgernol; maybe just a different name. I have actually seen some impressive results with it.

I don't understand the excitement of developing black & white film with coffee. There are many fine prepared film developers which are inexpensive and which give excellent results. For liquids try Clayton F60, Paterson Aculux-2, Edwal FG-7, Kodak HC-110 or Agfa Rodinal. For powders try Kodak D-76, Ilford ID-11 and Microphen. If you want to mix up your own film developer try Kodak D-23 (water, metol and sodium sulphite) or PC-TEA (Phenidone, Ascorbic acid and Trietahnolamine - all available from Artcraft Chemicals). I mixed up some PC-TEA. If you don't include shipping costs for the chemicals it comes to $0.13 per roll. FIlm developing in coffee? I think it's just a curiosity.

Several reasons, inexpensive, challeging, and you might run out of your regular stuff, would be handy to have around. The photo that I show above is less than an inch crop of a 4x5 neg and I was looking for grain and to my suprise none could be found in the enlargement. At that rate you could get a 40x50 print as good as this one which was reduced from an 8x10 for the post. If I could get uniform stains in the neg I would go for it, even though it smells to high Heaven. I will try a shot with high contrast and see if it reduces the contrast as I think it will. I used a jobe processor for this shot and may not have the speed right for this developer. any suggestions welcome.

You may need the whole picture to see what I am talking about: 1. original neg. a 4x5 scanned at 100dpi in color mode to give you and Idea of why I am disgusted ( on second thought I may have fogged this one) this is Kodak T-Max 400 film.

2. The second photo I will post is a crop of the headlight. size= 1/8inch sq. scanned at 3200dpi on Epson-3200, resized to 3" at 200dpi. I do not see any noticable grain, it is hard to tell really.

Now the crop!

I've seen similar problems with Caffenol on one roll of 35 mm I processed -- I think it came from either not mixing in the correct order, or (pursuant to mixing order) not letting the microbubbles from mixing settle out before using the developer. What I've taken to doing is to add the soda to the water first, and stir until all cloudiness is gone (indicating the microbubbles have cleared). I then add the coffee crystals, and stir until the muddiness of the solution clears to a deep, clear brown/black. The developer is then ready to use.

I might also suggest that a) no presoak is needed for a long process time like this one, b) if developing in trays, you have have trouble with oxidation before the developing time of around a half hour has passed, and c) if you're not already doing so, use filtered/deionized or distilled water instead of tap water; just as bad water makes good coffee taste bad, it could also cause all kinds of variations in the stain from the coffee.

I've never developed T-Max in Caffenol, but I've done several rolls of 35 mm Tri-X, and I've seen negatives from Plus-X (also 35 mm) and Berger 200 (5x7 sheet) that looked great -- plus some in 120 that had unevenness.

FWIW, my experience has been that Caffenol produces larger, but crisper grain than HC-110 Dilution H -- it's more in line with Rodinal, but with the stain, the end result from printing might be more like that from PMK or Pyrocat HD. I've yet to print any of my Caffenol negatives, but you can see some that I scanned in my portfolio. I'll attach one here...

Hi Ron!

That caffeine (a diketone with an aromatic ring and another smaller hyperconjugated heterogenous ring) makes a relatively good reducing agent, is no surprise at all. What shocked me almost twenty years ago is the fact that caffeine from turkish coffee (and from Coke as well) acts as photo developer in such a small concentration allowed by (in USA, the FDA) food law. Did you know that almost any tea or soda does more or less the same thing, especially if one concentrates them by boiling and totally eliminates the carbon dioxide? One may include in the developind agents class hundreds of compounds, some sophisticated chemicals, some naturally available mixtures (for Silver, any aromatic ring and/or even a couple of additional pi-electrons will do a job there).

Staying in the kitchen though, for uniformity, less stain and grain, try genuine Ness-coffee (and you may want to vacuum- or pressure-filter it just to get it cleaner and more concentrated). I never tried decaf, but if caffeine is indeed the developing agent, it should work extremely slow or not at all...

Excellent work Donald, but I don't agree that Caffenol comes even near any old Pyro... They (A. Adams) call the difference accutance. Your attachment is bravely suggesting similarity, but I am sure you may admit that the black did not print as deep as if you would had done the film in PMK. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Bad boy Jeff (just kidding)!

the rookie

I have another question! How long will Folgernol keep before processing? I really appreciate you guys helping. It is nice to know that helpfulnes prevails over criticism.

I will be trying the new suggestions today. Has anyone used Caffenol or Folgernol with fine grain slow films like Efke 25. I will be trying that next. Thanks guys,,,,,,,,,,,

Ron:

The problem with "keeping" applies as for any developer. Keep the base (Sodium Dicarbonate) away and you'll be able to store your developer longer. If you brew coffee beforehand add a few crystals of Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate (avoid Parabens, DMDM Hydantoin-contains Formaldehyde, Imidurea, as they bring additional uncontrollable reducing power, and they don't even offer any protection against fungi). Alternatively, you may try a few drops per liter of glycolic extracts of be it Grapefruit Seed and/or of the traditional Aussie's Tea Tree (sources and availability by request)

Always remember the low concentration in reducing agent of the coffee. Again, Millipore molecular filtering will get rid of any tars and colored stains will be off limits. Sadly, once used, in the discussed form, caffeine developers don't keep longer than one day, even less, and I would consider them among the "one shot" ones. But you do brew coffee every day, don't you?

Check out those articles as well:

www.shutterbug.net/features/0903sb_coffee/

www3.sympatico.ca/scruss/cafetype.html

Efke 25 is excellent because one may be able to control the benefic blue shade especially for blue-sensitive old and weird papers, but I didn't try it in coffee.

Good luck, and please post everything you get!

the rookie

O.K. guys, took advice and shot another test, some better. I think that I may be in trouble with continuous adjutation. I read a referal and they suggested not to continuous adjutate. here is my test shot, just not much of anything.