Chromagenic film developed in Caffenol CL

[Ed Bray]

I visited a little village called Harbertonford in the South Hams, Devon, UK and took some pictures of the church in the centre of the village using my Fuji GX680II with Ilford XP2 Super ISO400 120 film (normally C41 process).

The nominal exposure for the images was 1/125 sec @ f22 but this was reduced to 1/60th sec @ f22 as I was using a Yellow filter on the lens to increase the contrast.

I have been experimenting with Coffee based developers and recently after a little experimentation have standardised on a Caffenol CL formula with Semi-Stand development which has given me some outstanding negatives from regular Black and White films, I therefore decided to try the same technique with the XP2 chromagenic film.

The XP2 Super was processed in my version of Caffenol CL using the semi-stand technique for 65 minutes as follows at 21 degrees Celcius:

Formula: Weighed on a jeweller's digital scale and mixed individually into 500mls distilled water in the following order:

8g Sodium Carbonate (anhydrous) aka Soda Ash
5g Asorbic Acid aka Vitamin C
0.7g Pottasium Bromide
20g Tesco Really Rich Roast Coffee

Then after full mixing, left to stand for 10 minutes.

Film initially soaked for 5 minutes in a water prebath, then developer introduced:

Agitations: First 30 seconds, then 3 inversions after a further: 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 16 minutes and then empty tank after a further 34.5 minutes.

This was then followed by 3 water bath washes prior to 5 minutes of an Alkaline Fix before multiple tank washes of water and a rinse aid to complete.

I was very pleased with the results as the negatives the exhibit a fantastic range of tones, with very fine grain.

Images were scanned on my Epson V750 scanner at 2400dpi.

Shot with 65mm GX-M at 1/60th sec, f22, yellow filter, slight rise to lose some gravestones.


Harbertonford Church 65mm GX-M by Ed Bray, on Flickr

100% crop of 65mm image 2400dpi

Shot with 125mm GX-M at 1/60th sec, f22, yellow filter,


Harbertonford Church 125mm GX-M by Ed Bray, on Flickr

100% crop of 125mm image 2400dpi

 

[Derrel]

Nice work. I always like to see B&W landscapes under blue skies shot properly, with a colored filter over the lens! Thanks for the developer formula. Never having used coffee for such a reckless,wasteful purpose as developing film (when everybody KNOWS it's best used for amping up the human central nervous system!!!!!), my question is this: does one use "instant coffee" which dissolves quite well in water, or can one use "regular, ground" coffee? My concern is the coffee particulate matter. Is the short settling-out period enough to allow all coffee particulate to settle to the bottom of the mixing vessel?

I would like to try some coffee-based developing this summer,and would like a tip or two from somebody who's good at it-and you appear to be,based on these fine results! Any help or comments would be much appreciated.

 

[Ed Bray]

Hi Derrel, thanks for your kind comments.

The coffee used is instant, but it is recommened that you use the cheapest caffenated instant available (as it contains the most caffenic acid) which for me at the time (due to proximity) was Tesco's Really Rich Roast which unless you are really down on your luck you wouldn't actually want to drink.

In mixing, I slowly add the Sodium Carbonate whilst stirring and only when the mixture is clear do I add the Asorbic acid, again added slowly whilst stirring, I then add the Potassium Bromide before adding the instant coffee again adding slowly whilst continuing to stir. The chemicals are completely disolved and there is no particulates left behind to cause blemishes on your precious images.

To date, I have developed slow, medium and fast Black & White films and now a Chromagenic film, all in Caffenol CL and all succesfully, which is great as you can develop different speed films together in the same tank and using the same solution and know that the resulting negatives are going to be good to scan or to wet print.

Whilst Caffenol is a great developer, especially in it's CL formula with semi stand development, it has one disturbing feature, the smell is like nothing on earth, thankfully you only have to suffer it a couple of times, once when you make it and once when you pour it down the sink, fortunately all the ingredients are edible so it is also a very eco friendly developer too.

 

[Derrel]

Thank you so much for your reply Ed. This summer's developing efforts ought to be enjoyable--save for the stench! I appreciate the clarifications on the coffee selection, and the mixing instructions. We don't have Tesco coffee here in the US (that I am aware of), so Folger's Crystals will probably be my brand of choice to begin with. I was totally unaware that C-41 process B&W films could be developed with any of the coffee-based developers,so your post has been most enlightening. Thanks again.

 

[unpopular]

Bromide makes a huge difference with fog, as I have always expected, and I am very suprised of how well these turned out since C41 films perform so poorly in traditional b/w developers. With 5g Ascorbic Acid, and 20g instant coffee, it's kind of hard to say which is truly responsible for development here. But either way, these have turned out very well - even surprisingly well.