Cafenol: The New Coffee Film Developer

[mwfanelli2]

"It turns out that it’s possible to develop film in a mixture of instant coffee, washing soda and vitamin C. This is, to me, amazing."

From Wired...

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/0...p-film-in.html

[SmartWombat]

Coffee ... Wired - strange synchrony

[photophorous]

Not exactly "new," but yes...I figure this is what I'll do when I'm too poor to buy developer. There are lots of recipes for all kinds of developers floating around the web.

Another interesting tidbit is that any C-41 film can be developed in B&W film developer and you'll get a B&W image. Not exactly a good image, but it's possible.

Paul

[Canuck935]

That's pretty neat.

[Photo-John]

This isn't off topic! That makes it off topic

I'm moving this thread to the film forum, where it rightfully belongs!

[Xia_Ke]

This is definitely NOT off topic. Thanks for kicking this over PJ Never been much of a coffee drinker but, might have to give this a whirl finally for sh*ts and giggles.

[AspenGrey]

Haha. It works fine but you odnt get 'good' development. It works in a pinch.

[marmaduke]

I brewed 1.5 cups of very strong coffee (drip maker, medium roast about five tbs - yeah not really a measurement), mixed that with Cascade dishwashing soap which contains both lye and washing soda, and borax, and then extra borax in the form of clear liquid ant poison.
I call it Haphazidol! 20 minutes in that, agitating every minute, then wash, then fix with household grade amonia in window washing fluid for about 4 min.

The final result was absolutely terrible, but I'm happy because last time I used tide laundry detergent, and fixed in salt water, and the film came out entirely transparent!

I think next time I will add vitamin C, use even stronger coffee (maybe buy the crystals) use a longer developing time (the best negatives still look underdeveloped), and also a longer fixing time.

Also I will make a new developing tank. My current tank is a stainless steal 1.5 ltr thermos, but I think I'll need something shorter and wider for the film to all receive the same exposure to the chemicals.

Does anyone know what a general chemical principle would be in the develop/fix formulas? I'm thinking something like strong base and mild acid with pigment for a developer, and a mild or strong dilute base (as long as it will allow unexposed silver halloids to dilute in water) to fix. I think there must be a principle to apply that could then exte
nd to a wider range of chemicals, it can't just be coffee or even just cafeenic acid that works as a homebrew solution I guess.

[PWhite214]

Digital Truth has a lot of information on developers, ETC. Digitaltruth Photo

pHIL