Wide Open

[lostcoyote]

wide open for a wide length of time

[jnantz]

Am I understanding correctly, that you are mixing the caffenol and dev together and using that to develop with?
I ask because I am getting ready to attempt the caffenol and parodinal home-brews, and the thought just occurred that those two mixed may be tempting to try.

hi randy

yep, i mix'em together
for a while there i was spinning them in a unicolor processor ..
then i started doing 1/2 my development with dilute ansco130, dumping
and using caf-c .. and this time i just let them both sit in the tank together with stock a130.

i can't say if i am using a 'standard forumla' for my caf-c .. i don't have a measure
for my dry ingredients, i just eyeball+dump. my results are pretty consistent.
i am sure you can get similar results with dektol or another print developer
... i don't have anything but 130 on hand, so i use what i have ..

good luck!
john

[Colin Graham]

Please forgive the tired but I'm a sucker for narcissus snaps. Xenar 135 4.7

[Christopher Perez]

Ken, your images are lovely. Well done!

[Ken Lee]

Thanks - And thanks for selling the Heliar lens. I think you put some of your special mojo on it.

And thanks to Jim and others, for alerting us to this "wide open" approach. It's something old that's quite new for me: I feel like I did XX years ago, when I got my first 35mm SLR.

[Ken Lee]

"wide open for a wide length of time"

Splendid !

[Donald Qualls]

i can't say if i am using a 'standard forumla' for my caf-c .. i don't have a measure
for my dry ingredients, i just eyeball+dump.

The only recipe I've ever used for Caffenol is in teaspoons, not grams, except for the gram of vitamin C added for Caffenol C; if you have a set of kitchen measuring spoons, you can use a scant 1/4 teaspoon of ascorbic acid for a gram (it's close enough to water density that 1 tsp is about 5 g) and get close enough (along with 4 slightly rounded teaspoons of coffee crystals and 2 1/2 level teaspoons of washing soda).

[Jan Pedersen]

Keep them coming Colin, this is lovely.

[jnantz]

The only recipe I've ever used for Caffenol is in teaspoons, not grams, except for the gram of vitamin C added for Caffenol C; if you have a set of kitchen measuring spoons, you can use a scant 1/4 teaspoon of ascorbic acid for a gram (it's close enough to water density that 1 tsp is about 5 g) and get close enough (along with 4 slightly rounded teaspoons of coffee crystals and 2 1/2 level teaspoons of washing soda).

thanks donald!

i will see how my results look using the "real forumla" too
i kind of like over medicating my developer <g>

have you noticed that some instant coffees work better than others ?
i am using something now, that i had never heard of (off-brand of stop and shop?)
and my film looks nicer than the last brand i used ... nothing changed but the brand.


-john

[Donald Qualls]

Absolutely, different brands of coffee appear to have different levels of the developing agent(s), which best information suggests to be caffeic acid and potentially its chemical precursor, chlorogenic acid. The amounts I gave work perfectly with Folger's Coffee Crystals, and with a Fred Meyer branded generic (that's probably also available under other names at QFC and other stores that carry Top Crest brands, possibly including Harris Teeter if you're in the Carolinas), but a German brand (with name that's long since escaped me) that was reported as made from 100&#37; arabica beans required about doubling the coffee level. My hypothesis is that there is much more developing agent in the robusta beans commonly used to boost caffeine levels and reduce cost in lower priced brands (though caffeine itself exhibits no developing action -- decaf works just as well, and No-Doz doesn't).

Generally, then, I'd expect the cheaper instant coffees to develop more silver, other factors equal...