My B&W developer recipes

Caffenol CS

First published on 16.09.2012

Recipe:

Use allways cold preboiled water.

CS (stock solution):

5 g Sodium Sulfite
200 g cheap soluble coffee
200 g Vit. C

Water to make 1 Liter


Working solution for film:

5% solution of Sodium Carbonate, aka Soda
1g/L of Potassium Bromide
10 ml/L of the concentrate solution CS

Reference developing time at room temperature - 30 minutes.

Review on 27th Feb. 2013
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Caffenol CSS

First published: 5-5-2013

CSS (stock solution)

700 ml preboiled water
1 g Sodium Sulfite (5 g as it was first is too much, it produces gases)
100 g coffee
100 g Vit. C
6 g CD4
Water to make 1 L

Working solution for film:

700 ml water
20 g Sodium Sulfite
20 g Sodium Carbonate
1 g Potassium Bromide
20 ml of the stock solution CSS
Water to make 1 L

Developing time at 20ºC was measured to be 30 minutes with Shangai 100 film

Working solution for paper:

700 ml water
40 g Sodium Carbonate
100 ml of the stock solution CSS
Water to make 1 L

Developing time at 20ºC was measured to be 1 minute with Ilford Multigrade IV paper

Review on 25th May 2013
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Coffee Black

First published on 15th March 2014

After beeing convinced that we may substitute Sodium Carbonate for Sodium Hydroxide in Coffee+Ascorbate, I was wondering if that could be done with coffee alone, In fact I could develop very well with the following simple formula, as simple as the famous Kodak D23 that also has only two components:

500 ml water
20 g soluble coffee
Sodium Carbonate q.b. to reach pH=10,4
Water to make 1 liter

It is a one-shot developer and it takes 60 minutes to develop at 20ºC a Polypan F film or Shangai GP3. Other films must still be tested.

Yes, you may play with this developer. Adding more coffee and alkali will maybe develop faster but grain and fog will increase. I don't know.

Review on 5th May 2014
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Orange Juice

Following the same reasonings as for Coffee Black Developer, I came to the following Vit. C alone developer.

700 ml of water
50 g Sodium Carbonate
5 g Vit. C, keep pH of the solution =12, more Vit.C will decrease pH
Water to make 1 Liter

It is important here to dissolve the Vit. C after the sodium carbonate which has a pH=12.

It is a one-shot developer and it takes 60 minutes to develop at 17ºC a Polypan F film. Other films you must try yourself.

Yes, you may also play with this developer, more carbonate and more vit C will perhaps decrease developing time.

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Caffenol C21

Having in consideration both Coffeee Black and Orange Juice, one could think about mixing both and have a developer with softened propreterties of both. But this would lower the pH and the Vit. C would not work well. Because of this I came to the following minimal developer, with the same working time as the others:

700 ml water
50g Sodium Carbonate
2g coffee
1g Vit. C

It is also a one-shot developer and it takes 60 minutes to develop at 17ºC a Shangai 100 ISO film. Other films you must try yourself.

Yes, you may also play with this developer, more coffee and more Vit. C in the proportion 2/1 will perhaps decrease the developing time. But keep pH at 12 or maybe not less than 11,8.

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My Parodinal

Starting point for this recipe was this one. My first idea was just to replace p-Aminophenol Hydrochloride for Paracetamol and follow that recipe in the rest. I already don't know why, but I changed the 25 g Sodium Hydroxide in the original recipe with 40 g and, on the other hand I make it twice as concentrated as the original, i.e., instead of 1 Liter, I have only 500ml of concentrate.

Solution A
150 ml tap water
20 g Paracetamol (or Tylenol)
60 g Potassium Metabisulfite

Solution B
150 ml tap water
40 g Sodium Hydroxide

Water to make 500ml

Preparation:

Smash 40x500g tablets of paracetamol in a mortar. Put 150 ml tap water in a 1 liter beaker or similar container and add the paracetamol and stir. It will not dissolve all but go on and add 60 g Potassium Metabisulfite That will not dissolve all too.
In another container in a cold water bath, put 150 ml tap water and add slowly the 40 g Sodium Hydroxide and stir until it is all dissolved.

After a while, with the sodium hydroxide still warm, add it slowly to the solution A and go on stiring. You will see that all components will dissolve completely and you end with a very clear solution. Complete with water to make 500 ml and store in 500 ml amber bottle. Let it stand for 72 hours and then use as normal Rodinal.

Note: After 2 or 3 days the solution will turn slightly yellow, but clear. No depposits, no crystals, no mud observed until now, the last batch kept more than 9 months usable. I use it 1:100 for 30' at about 20ºC with Polypan F. In this dilution with Polypan you get normal negatives, with other films it may give low contrast at this dilution, maybe you increase it to 1:50 to get more contrast. I already used 1/300 for 3 hours development and worked well, finer grain.




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