I just joined this group in hopes of gaining some caffenol information. Long story short, I got my hands on some old films (an 828 plus x, and a couple Kodachromes), and contacting film rescue and a few photrio forums, I've been told Caffenol is the best option for my old films and I should develop them for 15-20 minutes.
Now, my questions are:
What is the best instant coffee to use. I've heard the cheaper the better but would like your suggestions. (note, please make sure your recommended brand is readily available in west Michigan United States).
Second, any alternate development time suggestions?
And... I'll do more research myself but if anyone's willing to link me any caffenol recipes I'd willingly consider them.

Also, I'll prepare a few 4x5 delta 100 test sheets for practice.

Google "Caffenol Cookbook and BIble" and choose the recipe that suits your developing style. Also The Digital Truth web site has some recipes. As the cheapest coffees in my hands differed greatly in their actual developing time per fixed weight input, a good compromise between price and general availability is "Taster's Choice" at Costco. No affiliation with either brand.

Pixophrenic said:

Google "Caffenol Cookbook and BIble" and choose the recipe that suits your developing style. Also The Digital Truth web site has some recipes. As the cheapest coffees in my hands differed greatly in their actual developing time per fixed weight input, a good compromise between price and general availability is "Taster's Choice" at Costco. No affiliation with either brand.

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Thanks. I do have to frozen kept k64s I can experiment with first. I'd like to try this sometime this summer.

Hi TheGreatGasMaskMan;

Sorry I didn't see your post ... I'm one of the folks who were involved with caffenol cookbook and I have experience with caffenol ( going back 10-12+ years ) The what kind of coffee thing is kind of debated, some say you can use any coffee you want but I have had less good luck with some coffees. The main thing is unless you want to brew a pot of coffee a couple of times, use instant, it takes some of the effort away. The whole cheep coffee thing is mainly because good coffee can be expensive, so cheep cuts down the cost of your developer, also cheep coffee tends to be made from a blend of robusta coffee beans and rumor over the years is that robusta beans tend to have more of the Mystery Chemical X that will develop your film.
With regards to the recipe, you will have to experiment a little to see which one works best for you. There are a handful of Caffenol Blogs ( just google or duck duck go "caffenol" and you will find them ) there are also handfuls of people and photos on Flickr in the Groups good images and images of problems and things like that, over the years, so that might be of help too. You might consider using a test roll, nothing with anything useful on it, just used film, as a guinea pig to see how things are working. Some folks put salt in their recipe and / or KBr as a restrainer to cut some of the fog that might happen with expired films, I've never done that, and I really have never done any of the fancy scaled out recipes to be honest. I

have fun !
john

Just got a honeywell pentax spotmatic f that I can use as a test camera for my test rolls, so I'll be starting part of the process soon.

Here's where I'm at-
not using the pentax, I instead loaded the k64 into a konica auto s2, and I think I'll try and start the first test roll on one of my days off next week (pending the weather of course)
Just ordered chemicals today (d76 for other films, ilford rapid fixer and ilford wetting agent [planning on using diluted vinegar for stop bath]), and I've got a tank
just need some graduated cylinders, (I've got one, but would like a few more), some distilled water and caffenol ingredients (which I should be able to pick up after work any day). I'll be back when I'm ready to develop.

OK, I'm going to get my caffenol and rem jet clearing materials tomorrow, but there's one thing I need help with now, What washing soda should I get
(also, first test kodachrome roll is mostly shot).
I hope to do some at home developing in the next two weeks, but it may take a bit more time before I'm ready to try the caffenol.

OK, both test K14s are shot, I've got all the caffenol materials, but I'm probably not going to be able to start until after the 15th, due to me moving.

My goal is to at least get the test k14s done on Friday, potentially doing some or all of the k12s as well.
Don't know when I'll be willing to try the plus x.

after actually doing it, my fixer now smells like coffee.