Consistent Caffenol Stand Development - that works!

Robin Guymer · Apr 10, 2017

This group needs some more enthusiasm as Caffenol is an excellent developer.

I have been developing B&W film in Caffenol for the past 12 months and now have a mixture that consistently works well for me every time and over a variety of films. Occasionally I also use Rodinal but have had more disasters with it than with Caffenol. My belief with chemistry mixes is you need to be exact on method, temperature and quantity. I use exact measures for liquids and a small digital scale for the powders. After placing the film in a 2 Roll Patterson tank this is my procedure for developing just one film roll.

Heat up a bulk amount of water to between 20 and 25 centigrade and use this throughout the process.

Soak film in 400ml of water for 5 minutes.

Per 350 ml of (filtered if your water quality is dodgy) water which covers 1 spool in a 2 spool Paterson Tank. Mix thoroughly in this order.

5.6 grams of waterless "Lectic" Washing Soda. (or Sodium Carbonate)
3.5 grams of Vitamin C. (use Ascorbic Acid type)
0.35 gram of Potassium Bromide (better than using 3.5 grams of iodised salt)
14.0 grams of "Aldi" Instant Coffee. (probably any cheap instant coffee)
Thoroughly mix and let stand for about 10 minutes

Check the mixture temperature and use these Development Times - 60 min @20c, 54 min @21c, 48 min @22c, 42 min @23c, 36 min @ 24c, 30 min @25c. Basically 10% less time for every 1 degree increase in temperature.

Agitation - First minute gentle swirls and 4 inversions then gentle inversion at 2, 4 & 8 minutes then let stand to finished.

Rinse Stop - Tip out developer, fill with water, tip out again, refill and gentle swirls for 1 minute. Tip out and repeat for another minute. This stops the development and rinses out all the coffee so it won't stain your Fix for reuse on another film.

Ilford Rapid Fix - 70ml + 280ml water = 350ml mix. Fresh mix allow 2 minutes with most B&W film with one inversion at 1 minute. If doing multiple films over the 7 day mixture life I add 15 seconds for each film. But check the instructions for testing fixer. Using Bergger Pancro 400 I follow their instructions of 6 minutes fixing time (and I invert at 2 minute intervals).

Rinse Stop - Tip Fixer back into storage container then fill tank with water and tip out. Refill and start standard Ilford wash instructions. Swirl 5 times tip and refill, swirl 10 times tip and refill, swirl 20 times and done. I pop the lid off after the first rinse and fill the tank up, then pump and twirl the spool in the water.

Final Rinse - I use a few drops of Adox Adoflo to 400ml of water and swirl & soak for a few minutes. (some suggest using distilled water which I think is a good idea)

Drying - I shake off as much water as I can feel coming off the reel whilst the film is still on it. Then I hang the film horizontally on my push bike rim that has multiple hooks and is hanging from the ceiling through the centre. This has proved the best drying method for me and it stops those long water runs down the middle of the film that you get with vertical hanging.

Film Types
I have had great success with this recipe so far on the following films shot at box speed.

Agfa APX 100 ASA - Nice results.
Rollie RPX 100 ASA - Seems exactly the same as the Agfa negs.
Fuji Neopan 100 ASA - Really beautiful clear negatives that scanned a treat.
Ilford HP5 400 ASA - Best results with this film so far.
Berrger Pancro 400 - Nice results.

The differences I am getting between Caffenol and Rodinal is the Caffenol tends to occasionally leave small white spots that need touching up. I am going to start using a paper coffee filter to put the mix through which should fix this. The Caffenol gives better shadow detail which is really evident when clouds are in the photo.

Flickr Album for my amateur Caffenol results. https://www.flickr.com/gp/142208709@N08/qWu1EY

I hope this is of assistance to anyone trying this developer. I actually prefer it to Rodinal and it's very rewarding to get successful results, what's more so cheap for the products. The Potassium Bromide can be hard to procure but try Compounding Chemists who should be able to order it in. Enjoy.

darkroommike · Apr 10, 2017

And that's the problem with all caffenol recipes, you specify locally sourced versions of carbonate and coffee which are not universally available. I am not disparaging your efforts but it requires extra effort for those of use that live in other countries.

Ezzie · Apr 21, 2017

Washing soda is the biggest variant. Since it is seldom completely anhydrous, most often not - and to varying degrees. My local version states 80-100% anhydrous. Baking it in an oven for a while will give more reproducible results. But I have never bothered. Even with regular strength and normal development, Caffenol is not that active, so a degree off here or a gram off there, will not mean the world. I do try to be consistent, but not to a T.

removed account4 · May 2, 2017

fantastic recipe and results !
i too stand develop and it hasn't let me down .. good to see others doing this too :smile:

but my measurements and coffee and washing soda are different than yours.
for the most part i have used a swollen box of arm+hammer washing soda ( now it is something purchased through a chemical supplier
that i bought for something else but never used, seems as good as the stuff i bought at the pharmacy years ago when i was in a pinch)
coffee is roasted beans that i brew strong.
(i don't use a gram / digital scale )
i just mix/free pour... everything
i use a big percolator and fill it for 10 cups ( that's 22 tablespoons or 11 "scoops" but they aren't exact )
washing soda i use a baby food container and put in around a big scoop, vit c same scoop but less
i keep about 1 gallon or more mixed up in a big plastic container. i also add about 15cc/dektol/8oz
so for a gallon its a few cc.
i don't replenish, but use it for about 3-5 months then remove 1L and add a new batch of coffee&c until i get nervous then i mix all new.
i stand develop with it or do whatever else with it i can think of .. when i stand i
water soak for 1-2 mins rap +release bubbles
pour developer in rap+release bubbles agitate for 1 min
leave room for 25-35 mins... come back, agitate between 30 seconds and 1 min before dumping and doing stop and fix &c...
works with every film, every iso, expired, fresh doesn't matter.
and since materials vary depending on location, town city, country grocery store &c &c ... YMMV :smile:

grommi · Aug 27, 2017

Thank you Robin for sharing your experiances with a Caffenol-C variant, which is exactly the Caffenol-C-L recipe that I developed and published on my blog (caffenol.blogspot.com) a few years ago.

Please allow me some addendum. With medium or slow speed films you can take advantage of using less bromide than 1 g/l (or a matching amount of iodized salt), about 0.2- 0.5 g/l pot bromide should work fine, and still get an even stand development at slightly shorter dev times or maybe a little bit better film speed.

I agree that Caffenol deserves more attention and Apug or now Phototrio never was a very Caffenol friendly place, members here ddn't show much interest for "new" alternative processes but much more for "old" traditional ones. As you can imagine, I did a lot of testing myself and as Ezzie already mentioned, knowing the kind of washing soda is most important for consistant, reproduceable results. The brand of the used instant coffee is almost insignificant. I got the same results with the cheapest supermarket coffee, 3-times expensive 100 % arabica and even decaffeinated coffee.

Nice flickr album, thanks again for sharing.

Best - Reinhold

Robin Guymer · Aug 28, 2017

grommi said:
Thank you Robin for sharing your experiances with a Caffenol-C variant, which is exactly the Caffenol-C-L recipe that I developed and published on my blog (caffenol.blogspot.com) a few years ago.
Please allow me some addendum. With medium or slow speed films you can take advantage of using less bromide than 1 g/l (or a matching amount of iodized salt), about 0.2- 0.5 g/l pot bromide should work fine, and still get an even stand development at slightly shorter dev times or maybe a little bit better film speed.
I agree that Caffenol deserves more attention and Apug or now Phototrio never was a very Caffenol friendly place, members here ddn't show much interest for "new" alternative processes but much more for "old" traditional ones. As you can imagine, I did a lot of testing myself and as Ezzie already mentioned, knowing the kind of washing soda is most important for consistant, reproduceable results. The brand of the used instant coffee is almost insignificant. I got the same results with the cheapest supermarket coffee, 3-times expensive 100 % arabica and even decaffeinated coffee.
Nice flickr album, thanks again for sharing.
Best - Reinhold

Thank you very much Reinhold. I must have read your blog ten times to perfect my own Caffenol development technique. Looks like we are lucky here in Melbourne to have a good brand of washing soda (Lectic). I have purchased the chemical version Sodium Carbonate but there appears no difference between either. Since may recent Rodinal disaster and using my new darkroom, I have gone back over all my Caffenol negatives and done a spread sheet of results for the different films. I just wanted to get some solid consistency for the wet printing and stick with a limited brand of films. What really showed up in the results was when I swapped over from the iodised salt to the Potassium Bromide. From then on my negs are consistently okay. You mentioned in your blog about the iodine content in iodised salt. I wrote to McKenzies Salt to query them on the iodine content and their chemist replied as follows "Our Iodised salt is produced to Australian standards which requires the salt to have anywhere between 25ppm to 65ppm of Iodine throughout its shelf life." That much variation convinced me that I needed to find the Potassium Bromide which was eventually procured from a Compunding Chemist. Mind you minimum size was a 1/2 kg so it should last me the next 300 years.

Earlier this year I shot a roll of film at the Melbourne Grand Prix. As an experiment I cut the roll in half and developed half in Rodinal 1:25 and the other in Caffenol C-L. Both developed very well (this was before my Rodinal died on me) but there was a bit more detail in the Caffenol. I will try your advice on less Bromide for the medium to slow films. Measurement of this seems to be critical. Have just developed a test roll of APX 100 in XTOL and was expecting results to be better than the Caffenol, but they look the same to me and are curling more! Your work with Caffenol development has been a revolution for people trying out and coming back to film as it is just such an exciting and rewarding prospect to develop in Coffee. Great talking point too.

All the best and thank you for contacting me.
Robin.

Pixophrenic · Dec 14, 2017

Ezzie said:
Washing soda is the biggest variant. Since it is seldom completely anhydrous, most often not - and to varying degrees. My local version states 80-100% anhydrous. Baking it in an oven for a while will give more reproducible results. But I have never bothered. Even with regular strength and normal development, Caffenol is not that active, so a degree off here or a gram off there, will not mean the world. I do try to be consistent, but not to a T.

There is a recent entry to the DigitalTruth web site, that offers a solution to the inconsistent quality of washing soda.
https://www.digitaltruth.com/data/formula.php?FormulaID=181

Pixophrenic · Dec 24, 2017

Robin Guymer said:
This group needs some more enthusiasm as Caffenol is an excellent developer.

I have been developing B&W film in Caffenol for the past 12 months and now have a mixture that consistently works well for me every time and over a variety of films. Occasionally I also use Rodinal but have had more disasters with it than with Caffenol. My belief with chemistry mixes is you need to be exact on method, temperature and quantity. I use exact measures for liquids and a small digital scale for the powders. After placing the film in a 2 Roll Patterson tank this is my procedure for developing just one film roll.

Heat up a bulk amount of water to between 20 and 25 centigrade and use this throughout the process.

Soak film in 400ml of water for 5 minutes.

Per 350 ml of (filtered if your water quality is dodgy) water which covers 1 spool in a 2 spool Paterson Tank. Mix thoroughly in this order.

5.6 grams of waterless "Lectic" Washing Soda. (or Sodium Carbonate)

3.5 grams of Vitamin C. (use Ascorbic Acid type)

0.35 gram of Potassium Bromide (better than using 3.5 grams of iodised salt)

14.0 grams of "Aldi" Instant Coffee. (probably any cheap instant coffee)

Thoroughly mix and let stand for about 10 minutes

Check the mixture temperature and use these Development Times - 60 min @20c, 54 min @21c, 48 min @22c, 42 min @23c, 36 min @ 24c, 30 min @25c. Basically 10% less time for every 1 degree increase in temperature.

Agitation - First minute gentle swirls and 4 inversions then gentle inversion at 2, 4 & 8 minutes then let stand to finished.

Rinse Stop - Tip out developer, fill with water, tip out again, refill and gentle swirls for 1 minute. Tip out and repeat for another minute. This stops the development and rinses out all the coffee so it won't stain your Fix for reuse on another film.

Ilford Rapid Fix - 70ml + 280ml water = 350ml mix. Fresh mix allow 2 minutes with most B&W film with one inversion at 1 minute. If doing multiple films over the 7 day mixture life I add 15 seconds for each film. But check the instructions for testing fixer. Using Bergger Pancro 400 I follow their instructions of 6 minutes fixing time (and I invert at 2 minute intervals).

Rinse Stop - Tip Fixer back into storage container then fill tank with water and tip out. Refill and start standard Ilford wash instructions. Swirl 5 times tip and refill, swirl 10 times tip and refill, swirl 20 times and done. I pop the lid off after the first rinse and fill the tank up, then pump and twirl the spool in the water.

Final Rinse - I use a few drops of Adox Adoflo to 400ml of water and swirl & soak for a few minutes. (some suggest using distilled water which I think is a good idea)

How can I contact you directly? I think your excellent blog is need of an update, in the interest of all coffee-based developer users,

How can I contact Reinhold directly?

grommi said:

Thank you Robin for sharing your experiances with a Caffenol-C variant, which is exactly the Caffenol-C-L recipe that I developed and published on my blog (caffenol.blogspot.com) a few years ago.

Please allow me some addendum. With medium or slow speed films you can take advantage of using less bromide than 1 g/l (or a matching amount of iodized salt), about 0.2- 0.5 g/l pot bromide should work fine, and still get an even stand development at slightly shorter dev times or maybe a little bit better film speed.

I agree that Caffenol deserves more attention and Apug or now Phototrio never was a very Caffenol friendly place, members here ddn't show much interest for "new" alternative processes but much more for "old" traditional ones. As you can imagine, I did a lot of testing myself and as Ezzie already mentioned, knowing the kind of washing soda is most important for consistant, reproduceable results. The brand of the used instant coffee is almost insignificant. I got the same results with the cheapest supermarket coffee, 3-times expensive 100 % arabica and even decaffeinated coffee.

Nice flickr album, thanks again for sharing.

Best - Reinhold

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Drying - I shake off as much water as I can feel coming off the reel whilst the film is still on it. Then I hang the film horizontally on my push bike rim that has multiple hooks and is hanging from the ceiling through the centre. This has proved the best drying method for me and it stops those long water runs down the middle of the film that you get with vertical hanging.

Film Types
I have had great success with this recipe so far on the following films shot at box speed.

Agfa APX 100 ASA - Nice results.

Rollie RPX 100 ASA - Seems exactly the same as the Agfa negs.

Fuji Neopan 100 ASA - Really beautiful clear negatives that scanned a treat.

Ilford HP5 400 ASA - Best results with this film so far.

Berrger Pancro 400 - Nice results.

The differences I am getting between Caffenol and Rodinal is the Caffenol tends to occasionally leave small white spots that need touching up. I am going to start using a paper coffee filter to put the mix through which should fix this. The Caffenol gives better shadow detail which is really evident when clouds are in the photo.

Flickr Album for my amateur Caffenol results. https://www.flickr.com/gp/142208709@N08/qWu1EY

I hope this is of assistance to anyone trying this developer. I actually prefer it to Rodinal and it's very rewarding to get successful results, what's more so cheap for the products. The Potassium Bromide can be hard to procure but try Compounding Chemists who should be able to order it in. Enjoy.

Pixophrenic · Dec 24, 2017

I was just going to say that there is a German paper of 2006 which measured certain substances in food and beverages and it came to the conclusion that roasted coffee contains appreciable amounts of catechol and pyrogallol, both known as developing agents since early 20th century. This is not meant to say that there are no other substances in coffee that have developing properties which may have been missed by this study, but it is rather likely that catechol (pyrocatechin) and pyrogallol are the main agents in Caffenol. Any other ideas?

grommi · Dec 29, 2017

Caffeic acid is a film developing agent and roasted coffee beans contain some of it. As far as I know it shall be the main developing agent of coffee. Furthermore caffeic acid has a similar structure as catechol and pyrogallol. Caffeic acid is found in many plants, but coffee beans contain a much bigger amount compared to other plants.

Against this, Caffeine has no developing power.

Pixophrenic · Dec 31, 2017

grommi said:
Caffeic acid is a film developing agent and roasted coffee beans contain some of it. As far as I know it shall be the main developing agent of coffee. Furthermore caffeic acid has a similar structure as catechol and pyrogallol. Caffeic acid is found in many plants, but coffee beans contain a much bigger amount compared to other plants.

Against this, Caffeine has no developing power.

I tried green coffee (ground) and green coffee extract (reportedly 50% chlorogenic acid) and both are very weak developers in the Caffenol recipes. The German paper mentioned above lists appreciable amounts of catechol and pyrogallol in ground coffee, and besides, they tried "simulated roasting" of pure compounds like catechin and showed that catechol is efficiently produced during heating at 200 Celsius. In addition, rutin which has the same benzene ring configuration as caffeic acid, is also a very weak developer. Unfortunately, the food scientists that published the coffee analysis, are not responding so far to my queries. Perhaps after the holidays they may find time.

Pixophrenic · Dec 31, 2017

Pixophrenic said:
I tried green coffee (ground) and green coffee extract (reportedly 50% chlorogenic acid) and both are very weak developers in the Caffenol recipes. The German paper mentioned above lists appreciable amounts of catechol and pyrogallol in ground coffee, and besides, they tried "simulated roasting" of pure compounds like catechin and showed that catechol is efficiently produced during heating at 200 Celsius. In addition, rutin which has the same benzene ring configuration as caffeic acid, is also a very weak developer. Unfortunately, the food scientists that published the coffee analysis, are not responding so far to my queries. Perhaps after the holidays they may find time.

Sorry "editing" does not seem to work, so I am replying to myself. Indeed, amounts of catechol and pyrogallol measured in coffee in the above paper far exceed those in other sources. In their list, roasted malt comes a distant second, and other sources such as juices and wine, cannot even be seriously considered as a source. Their simulated roasting experiments also imply that caffeic acid is likely destroyed during roasting and is converted into other substances, among them catechol and its derivatives.

grommi · Jan 2, 2018

I wouldn't be surprised if other agents from the roasted coffee add to the developing power.

"In their list, roasted malt comes a distant second": I once tried roasted instant grain coffee surrogate "Caro" made from roasted malt and it had no developing power at all.

Pixophrenic · Jan 3, 2018

When I said "a distant second", it was mostly academic meaning it was second in the list, with amounts >10-fold less than in coffee. Development time for comparable amounts of roasted malt would have been in excess of 10 hours. I doubt anyone would be interested in trying this out.

fs999 · Nov 13, 2019

Potassium bromide or iodized salt is only needed for highspeed films (400 ISO)...

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Consistent Caffenol Stand Development - that works!

Robin Guymer

darkroommike

Ezzie

removed account4

grommi

Robin Guymer

Pixophrenic

Pixophrenic

Pixophrenic

grommi

Pixophrenic

Pixophrenic

grommi

Pixophrenic

fs999